Register, Exercise “duty as responsible citizens”: Zimbabwe’s Catholic Bishops’ Commission

CCJPZ officials underscore the need for the electorate to take part in the poll, saying, “Consider this, at least once every five years you have an opportunity to choose who should lead.”

“Will you choose or you will let others choose for you? Will you be content living the next five years with other people's choices when you had an opportunity to determine the future?” CCJPZ officials pose in their March 11 statement.  

Like the ongoing preparations for the Synod on Synodality, officials of the Catholic Bishops’ Commission say the electioneering people is an invitation for Zimbabweans to journey together.

“As we celebrate the Synod on synodality, we are called to journey together and not to leave anyone behind. How far does your understanding of synodality stretch? Elections are an expression of journeying and discerning our future together as a nation,” they say. 

They add, “It, therefore, will be proper that as we exercise our democratic and constitutional right individuals, we also see these elections as an exercise in communal discernment.” 

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CCJPZ officials further say that Christians are obligated “to participate and associate not only in Church matters but even in civil matters.”

“No one can tell who to vote for or which party to join, rather we encourage you to participate and to be fully involved in the life of our country. That life by the way does not exclude politics and elections are another way of participating in the life of our country,” they say. 

In their February 22 Lenten Pastoral Letter 2023, ZCBC described the general elections in which President Mnangagwa is seeking a second term as “a sacred moment of synodality” for Zimbabweans. 

“A general election is a sacred moment of Synodality and communal discernment because Synodality is about journeying together, an important watershed moment in the life of a people.” ZCBC members said, adding, “A general election should never be preceded by violence.”

They called upon Zimbabweans to discern the direction they want their landlocked nation to take, saying, “This lent must give us time to think about the sort of leadership we want.”

The electioneering period, ZCBC members said, provides “a time of communal discernment about the kind of leadership we want, and where we wish to go as a nation.” 

They emphasized the need for the polls to be held with importance, saying, “If important elections such as these become nothing but a power game, seeking to attain or retain power and nothing else to offer beyond this, then as a nation, we are lost and we are doomed.”

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.