Churches enter fray to broker peace in Zim

– Zimbabwe’s churches yesterday sought to broker talks between the government and its opponents over a political and economic crisis they said had left the country “angry and traumatised”, after the main opposition snubbed a meeting with the president.

The nation had hoped to shake off its divided past after a 2017 coup forced long-time leader Robert Mugabe from power, but last year’s disputed election won by President Emmerson Mnangagwa only deepened political rifts.

A security crackdown on post-election bloodshed in August 2018 and another one last month against violent protests has critics saying that under Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe is revisiting the authoritarianism that was the hallmark of Mugabe’s regime.

Mnangagwa skipped yesterday’s meeting after initially indicating he would attend. He was represented by Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri.

Main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, politicians from smaller parties, diplomats, business leaders and several Cabinet ministers attended yesterday’s meeting, the first such gathering since Mnangagwa first came to power in November 2017.

Church leaders said they had stepped forward to mediate and reconcile political parties, which would lay the basis for the recovery of an economy battling a severe US dollar shortage that has sapped supplies of fuel and medicines.

“Zimbabwe is clearly a hurting, angry and traumatised nation,” Bishop Ambrose Moyo, who heads the Ecumenical Church Leaders Forum, said during a prayer meeting with politicians.

“Such a dialogue as initiated by the churches will help us to do some serious introspection as we speak to one another. We stand committed to this process, set up by the united church to build peace, unity and prosperity.”

Some ruling party officials have accused Chamisa and his Movement for Democratic Change of only seeking talks to be accommodated in government, which the opposition denies. –