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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Villagers
prepare for 2008 vote
Action
Aid International
February
05, 2008
http://www.actionaid.org/zimbabwe/index.aspx?PageID=2234
Spiwe Ncube, a
65-year-old widow from Bulawayo vowed that she will not vote for
lying politicians who underrate the electorate by making unending
promises.
Ncube was part
of a 40-member group of villagers from Robert Sinyoka, some 20 kilometres
out of Bulawayo that underwent three days of local level advocacy
programme training, facilitated by Habakkuk Trust, an ActionAid
partner in October 2007.
"The character
of the potential leadership must be well understood, and their messages
during campaigning must be consistent," Ncube said.
"This village
will remain under-developed if we continue to vote into office people
without the requisite commitment to work together with us."
She said she would
do everything in her power to mobilise other villagers to critically
follow up on issues raised during an election period and hold the
elected officials to account, constantly reminding them of the many
promises they make.
Emphasis of the
training was on understanding the key issues affecting their community,
acquiring advocacy and lobbying skills, and defining the strategy
of raising their issues to the policy making structures from the
local authorities to their legislators.
Dumi Nkomo, the
chief executive officer of Habakkuk Trust describes the local level
advocacy programme as a crucial tool of influencing people to take
appropriate action in response to concerns raised by the communities.
He said as the
nation braces for the 2008 harmonised elections, communities needed
to be highly mobilised to defend their right to be heard and their
issues to be acted upon.
"Citizens
have to be firm in their demands. They must present factual information
to the duty bearers as lobbying tools," he said.
"As we approach
elections some cunning politicians will say anything to the electorate
without much consideration to the veracity of their claims."
"Under the
local level advocacy programme communities are trained to probe
issues and understand the systems of governance at all levels."
As for Ncube,
she is convinced the issues affecting her community will be easily
dealt with if the training spreads to the rest of the constituencies
where the communities face problems such as water shortages, lack
of health centres, increased political intolerance and the worsening
food situation which has exacerbated the plight of people on the
home based care programmes.
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