Zimbabwe’s Church Leaders, Politicians Realize Consultative Meeting on Country’s Crises

The leaders who met were also concerned about the corruption scandal surrounding the procurement of COVID-19 test kits, particularly the “realization that the resources mobilized for the pandemic were not being handled in ways that instilled confidence to the public,” the July 16 IMBISA report indicates.

Earlier this month,  Zimbabwe’s Health Minister Obadiah Moyo was fired for his alleged involvement in the irregular procurement of $60million worth COVID-19 test kits. The former Minister has since been taken to court and charged with criminal abuse of office.

During the July 13 inaugural consultative meeting, there was also “a huge outcry among the participants regarding the failure to implement the constitution.”

“While some participants raised concerns on the integrity of the current constitution, there was unanimity that it was supposed to be implemented before it can be amended,” IMBISA reported. 

According to the participants at the July 13 meeting, “The failure to implement and honor the constitution had seen an increase in fear among citizens confronted by violence and many unresolved cases of abductions and systematic torture at the hands of persons alleged to be state functionaries.”

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The representatives of the political and church leadership in Zimbabwe at the meeting also highlighted the negative effects of the current economic collapse saying “it is characterized by increasing corruption cases, most of which are not being resolved satisfactorily.”

“There was general agreement that even the informal economy which had become the source of livelihoods for the majority of citizens had been destroyed, not only due to the effects of COVID-19 but because of the economic policies in which citizens were not properly consulted,” the political and religious leaders said.

The destroyed informal economy has resulted in high poverty levels in the country, marginalizing “citizens especially women and children to be able to meaningfully participate in democratic processes,” the participants at the consultative meeting further said.

“At the heart of many of the issues raised, was the failure to properly bring closure to the many hurts and human rights violations of the immediate and long-past, including, but not isolated to Gukurahundi,” IMBISA reported in reference to the 4-year strife that happened in the 1980s.

From early 1983 to late 1987, the Zimbabwe National Army carried out a series of massacres targeting the Ndebele civilians. The violence is known as the Gukurahundi massacres.  

“Due to this wounded past, some communities feel deliberately marginalized from the national development priorities,” the political and Christian leaders have been quoted as saying, adding that “without such closure, the nation has not managed to build a shared national vision and shared values.” 

As a way forward, the political leaders who agreed that the identified issues could not be solved by a few actors observed that “the intertwined and overarching nature of these issues require an urgent, inclusive, broad-based national dialogue process involving political parties, CSO, business, the security sector, traditional leaders, and churches, among other players.”

The representatives of the political parties in Zimbabwe encouraged ZHOCD members to reach out to other stakeholders not at the meeting “towards an inclusive, comprehensive, and broad-based national dialogue process, as a matter of urgency.”

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.