Catholic Bishops in Zimbabwe Decry Recalls of Elected Candidates as “new form of violence”

Apart from holding the nation “in the dreaded perpetual election mode,” the recalls of elections political candidates “have given birth to violence,” ZCBC members say.

They add, “Even those who, for a short while, had shunned violence, have fallen back on their default position of violent campaigns. People are being abducted, brutalized, and left for dead.”

On November 13, Tapfumaneyi Masaya, a CCC member, was found dead following his abduction.  

In their pastoral statement, Catholic Bishops in Zimbabwe say the nation has also witnessed “retributions targeting those who were perceived to have voted wrongly, whatever that means!”

These political happenings have made the people feel they are not listened to and that they are not respected, they further lament.

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“This breeds tensions and many who have no way of diffusing them bottle them up. This is not healthy for people and society. If it is true that, 'an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us,' then we are all living in a wounded society,” the Catholic Church leaders say.

They call on Zimbabweans “to work for the promotion of peace and to be agents of peace.”

“Lack of peace has a negative effect on our country,” ZCBC members say, and continue, “Economically, it works against all our ideals of a middle-income economy and the realization of vision 2030.”

Socially, they add, lack of peace “breeds animosity and creates a divided nation. Spiritually, it robs us of our identity as the sons and daughters of God.” 

ZCBC members urge politicians to condemn politically motivated violence. They ask legislators in the country to “revisit the enacted laws that can easily be manipulated at the expense of the people's basic rights and freedoms.”

The Catholic Church leaders also urge law enforcement agents to bring perpetrators of political violence to book.

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.