Churches step in after opposition snubs president

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

Mnangagwa skipped Thursday’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 Thursday’s meeting, the first such gathering since Mnangagwa came to power in November 2017.

Church leaders said they had stepped forward to mediate and reconcile political parties.

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

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

Chamisa repeated demands for the removal of the military from the streets and release of hundreds of people jailed during the mid-January protests.

“I am a leader to members of parliament who cannot even sleep in their houses.”