The Zimbabwe Council of Churches has called on the leaders of Zanu-PF, the party which has been officially declared the winner of last week’s national elections, to “create avenues for inclusive dialogue and engagement” and “heed the complaints” raised by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance.
The statement, released on Friday, comes after the Zimbabwe Electorial Commission announced the ruling Zanu-PF had won the majority of seats in Parliament and incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa had been returned to the presidency. The MDC Alliance and leader Nelson Chamisa rejected the election results with Chamisa describing the polls as “fraudulent and illegitimate”.
At least six people were killed in Harare when troops opened fire on protestors following the closing of polls last Monday – the first national elections since the ousting of Robert Mugabe last year – and there have been reports that opposition activists have been targeted in a series of attacks carried out since Friday night.
In the statement, the ZCC said it supported claims that the results announced by the electoral commission were consistent with sample based observation projections but called on the commission to release results for all elections, for “transparency and accountability”, and for all Zimbabweans “to be peaceful and for aggrieved parties to seek peaceful and legal redress and exercise restraint”.
The churches said they prayed that objections raised by the MDC Alliance would be “expressed in a peaceful and legal manner” and that they would receive a “fair and just hearing in accordance with the nation’s laws and constitution”.
“From the announced results we note with deep concern that our nation is deeply divided,” the statement read. “The deepening polarisation between urban and rural voters, younger and older voters, as well as richer and poorer voters requires urgent redress through a holistic process of nation building and envisioning. The cry of different sectors of our population requires both a pastoral and prophetic response.”
As well as calling on the leaders of Zanu-PF to “commit to a nation building dialogue process aimed at uniting the nation and creating an inclusive way forward”, the statement urged the leaders of the MDC Alliance to address their dissatisfactions through the courts and said that if the alliance did not trust it would get a fair hearing, that the church leadership would make itself “available to facilitate other platforms of engagement as to bring mutually satisfactory closure to the current situation”.
“We also plead with the MDC Alliance leadership to bear in mind the pressing need to maintain peace and not take actions that may easily deteriorate to chaos. Volatile situations tend to deteriorate and attain a life of their own beyond anyone’s control.”
Addressing the people of Zimbabwe, the church leaders added that peace “is not going to be achieved in the absence of justice”.
“As long as there are Zimbabweans crying, as long as there are Zimbabweans who feel excluded and marginalised, as long as there are Zimbabweans who are thirsty, as long as there are Zimbabweans who are wandering in the diaspora longing to come home but are afraid of uncertainties, God looks and hears their cry from heaven,” they wrote.
“God is saying the solution is not far away, the fountain is just close by. Let us all open our eyes, we have the solution. The solution lies not in our separation but in our reconciliation on the basis of justice.”
The pastoral statement was welcomed by Isabel Apawo Phiri, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
“At this crucial moment in Zimbabwe’s national life, we praise the constructive and deliberative role that the churches and the ZCC have played in this national élection process and it’s aftermath, and we pray that all Zimbabweans will take to heart their plea for peaceful resolution of election disputes,” she said. Phiri added “the statement of the ZCC is powerful and speaks the truth to both the powerful and powerless in a context of national anxiety”.
“So much is at stake not just in these elections but also in how they are adjudicated and it is up to political leaders to act responsibly, to respect the mechanisms for challenging the results, and to avoid any excuse for or encouragement of further violence. Zimbabwe’s future depends on it.”
