Let’s Not Celebrate Rich Criminals: CNRG


Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) Director, Farai Maguwu, has urged Zimbabwean citizens to stop celebrating rich criminals amassing wealth through organized crime in country.

In his opening speech at the Resilience Dialogue meeting against organized crime at a local hotel in Mutare on Tuesday attended by Community Based Organizations (CBO) from Marange, Nyanga and Mutare aimed at understanding new developments on how the communities can mitigate the vulnerability to organized crime involving diamonds and gold, Maguwu said communities must investigate organized crime and criminal agents.

The meeting was sponsored by the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime that works towards a global strategy against organized crime.

The Global Initiative is an independent civil-society organization that includes prominent law-enforcement, governance and development practitioners who are dedicated to seeking new and innovative strategies and responses to organized crime.

“We should never celebrate rich criminals as successful people within our societies. They are amassing wealth through organized crime. They are having those riches by stealing from the public and why should we celebrate them,” Maguwu said.

“As communities let us investigate organized crime and continuously talk about it. Let’s constantly talk about organized crime within our families and community networks. We must not be afraid and let’s all engage policy makers,” he added.

In his presentation, the CNRG Project Coordinator – Obrine Nhachi –said Zimbabwe is a fertile environment for all manner of illicit dealings.

“It is against this backdrop that the current intervention seeks to engage affected communities regarding the rampant illicit gold smuggling in communities in a bid to build resilience through dialogue and engagement,” he said.

“This resilience dialogue to create networks of resilient actors who enhance their capacities to counter the dominance and power of organized crime by influencing local policymaking, raising their security awareness and strengthening their coordination mechanisms among others,” said Nhachi.

There must be robust discussion on the needs of the Manicaland border towns when it comes to issues of organized crime.

“We are advocating for elements of a successful resilience dialogue that promote an interactive environment suited for community building and a two-way engagement,” said Nhachi.

“We want a resilient dialogue that is action-oriented that should balance formal and informal settings. As resilient actors we want to achieve agreements and commitments that are built from our recommendations and insights,” he said.

Vimbai Darikwa the Programs Officer for CNRG said communities should get connected through their commitments and play their roles in challenging criminal governance. ZimMorningPost

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