ROHR UK Chapter Executive Committee Zoom meeting Sunday 4th October 2020 - Report

5^th October 2020

On Sunday 4^th October 2020, the Executive Committee of the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe held a meeting via zoom. Nicolate Gwati, the Chairperson, chaired the meeting.

Attendance Register

Nicolate Gwati, Alvina Chibhamu (Secretary), Lilian Nleya (Organising Secretary), Vongayi Mufara (Information & Publicity Secretary), Grace Makoni (Treasurer) and Delina Mutyambizi

Agenda

1)     Roles and areas of responsibility and expectations from each portfolio holder

2)     Map out a plan as the UK Chapter for initiatives in the organization

 

Meeting start: 14:00 hrs

Roles and areas of responsibility

Congratulations were exchanged with regards to new appointments within the Executive Committee. Nicolate went on to ask if people were aware of what their roles and responsibilities entail. Alvina, Vongayi and Lilian took it in turns to say, in short, in their own words, their understanding of their respective portfolios. Nicolate highlighted this was necessary to establish in order to avoid repeating past mistakes and avoiding a situation in the past whereby some members have been “passengers”.  She encouraged members to ask if they were not sure of any aspects of their roles.

 

Information on UK Chapter

Nicolate expressed that the expectation is for everyone within the committee to respond to messages on the group chat and if we have to be effective, we need to work as a team to function properly.

As she settles in her new role as Chairperson, Nicolate promised to keep an open-door policy and encouraged us all to approach her with ideas, suggestions, etc and everyone is free to contribute.

Contracts

It was reported that Mr Panyika Karimanzira, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, has come up with contracts for each of us. This way, everyone has the accountability of their actions and breaches can easily be identifiable. Going from past experiences, gentlemen’s agreements have left room for abuse, the contracts are therefore meant to mitigate whatever it is that would have come up.

 

Map out a plan as UK Chapter

Discussions centred around other sub-committees within the organization. Examples are the Human Rights Monitoring sub-committee and the Fundraising sub-committee. It was noted that the UK Chapter Executive Committee had not held a committee meeting in the last two months and that this needed to be rectified to ensure we stay on top of things.

• UKChapter initiatives will be rolled out UK-wide. Recognized that Scotland have rolled out a few campaigns lately and some branches have been inactive or minimally active.
• Alvina spoke about fundraising ideas and went by what they were doing at branch level (Scotland). Nicolate commented that it went back to the constitution (yet to be finished) and that funding can be accessed if ROHR becomes a charity. Will seek an update from the Board of Trustees with regards to the completion of the Constitution as there can only be so many donations you can solicit from individuals and ROHR can gain so much credibility when we have charity status especially where we can fully delve into helping people or activists on the ground in Zimbabwe. We are missing out a lot as an organization and we have individuals that need help, but we need to position ourselves to be eligible for those funds.
• That said, Nicolate challenged us to look at the environment and see what can we push as an agenda?
• Vongayi spoke about the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter and observed that as ROHR we need to be more visible, not come up with something towards that campaign and that it was up to each and every one of us an organization to push through this hashtag. She reminded us of the outdated letter to the MP’s that we could be utilized to take advantage of the situation and address this hashtag with them.
• Nicolate advised us all to brainstorm and highlight all issues since the lockdown that we can include to update the letter to the MP so that Alvina can redraft and update the letter.
• Vongayi spoke of the non-participation of other branches; so much is said and discussed on monthly meetings, but little is actioned. Nicolate has likened the experience to ‘pulling teeth’ where actually getting people to participate is so hard even at branch level.
• Alvina shared what has worked at Branch level within the Scotland Branch to rope in everyone. She also suggested we come up with a questionnaire to ask what people are interested in, what is working and what is not working so as to gauge where it’s all going wrong. Vongayi concurred picked on individuals engaging- we need to find out what is going on. We do not see as much commitment and enthusiasm as we would expect from our people especially considering the worsening human rights situation is concerned. The apathy needs to be addressed by us as the leadership.
• Alvina also suggested as UK chapter we must take responsibility for the performance of branches.
• The Executive Committee should perform internal audits of branches, attend their meetings and liaise with the respective branch committees to really pick their brains and offer necessary support and motivation. Probably most convenient during the lockdown as it can easily be arranged on zoom.
• Additionally, another avenue maybe, for example, Nicolate as Chairperson of UK Chapter, convene with respective Branch chairs, Alvina as Secretary, liaise with all secretaries and so on and so forth right down through the committee hierarchy.

Branches

Midlands Branch

Performing well but there is scope for improvement. Some committee members and ordinary members not pulling their socks and such need motivation.

Scotland Branch

Performing well but there is scope for improvement. Some committee members and ordinary members not pulling their socks and such need motivation.

 

North Branch

Historically was the flagship of the UK Chapter but has lost its shine over the past few years to a point where it is almost not functioning at all.

South Branch (London & environs as well as all England areas south of London)

Delina Mutyambizi advised that Mr Mapfumo is just now trying to revive the branch. It is experiencing a lot of pull back from individuals themselves so it is still baby steps.

 

Actions

·        Letter to the MP - to be posted to the group and updated. Everyone to research and look at how they can contribute (Deadline for submissions on the ROHR WhatsApp groups is Wednesday 7^th October 2020)

·         Alvina to work on questionnaire and post on the ROHR WhatsApp groups.

• We should be able to work on an initiative for ZLM campaign
• Tsungie used to help with video editing but she is busy at the moment (Nicolate might ask her for training)

·        Cold calling to individuals-Nicolate will start with cold calling members (and delegate to others) to get a feel of what is happening with each person.

       ROHR now has own zoom account that branches can use to host meetings-extra care to be taken to avoid hijackers

AOB

-  Delina enquired on the progress of the petition launched via the HR Monitoring team

-  The Dossier that went with the petition will need to be updated. Meeting to be set up

Delina encouraged everyone to look up Peter Ndoro -SABC news anchor as well as Ibbo Mandaza’s zoom link which took place on Thursday regarding the proposed transitional authority route for Zimbabwe. She will post the link to the UK Chapter group.

Vongayi gave an update on what is happening in the Activist Fundraising Committee. A uniform assistance programme will be implemented when handing out the monetary and food packs to affected activists on the ground in Zimbabwe. This is following the identification of reliable Human Rights organizations in different parts of the country who will verify individual accounts and make the referrals for assistance to ROHR Zimbabwe.

Nicolate announced the date of the next meeting as 18th October 2020.

 

All agenda items having been exhausted Nicolate Gwati declared the meeting closed at 1830hrs.

Pictures of this meeting can be viewed via the hyperlink below;-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohr_zimbabwe__manchester/albums/72157716251247938

 

 

By: - Information & Publicity Department