President reaches out to opposition
From Page 1 the 2018 election campaigns, he said Government regretted the deaths of six people during opposition-instigated violent protests in Harare on August 1.
“I feel that with a free conscience that my party and most parties did commit themselves wholeheartedly to a peaceful campaign and I am happy that for a change, Zimbabwe went through an entirely peaceful campaign.
“This made us proud as Zimbabweans that we can do it if we commit ourselves to peace and unity. We also had an excellent voting process, in my view, on the 30th of July. The only worrying situation happened two days later, on the 1st of August, when violence erupted and we lost some lives. We regret it.”
After the meeting, ZCC general secretary Reverend Kenneth Mtata said religious leaders wanted the country to move forward.
“We know it has been a closely contested election. Emotions and hearts were broken, which resulted in deepening the fragmentation that we already have. We thought that it would be important to bring some healing and closure to this election and create a new sense of direction to see if we can bring convergence to Zimbabwe as we move forward as a nation. We think it is incumbent upon all of us to say the election period is over and Zimbabweans must put their energies towards a process of nation-building,” he said.
He said the ZCC would continue providing platforms for political leaders to dialogue.
“There are some who were conspicuous by their absence, but we have been in touch with all opposition politicians. We believe that this is not the end, we need to continue to reach out to them.”
ZCC advisory committee chair Mrs Vimbai Nyemba added: “We are encouraged that the President wants us to continuously engage with other political leaders and we are going to do that. We will continue to talk about peace and love.”
Among dignitaries at the prayer meeting were Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga; ministers Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Christopher Mushohwe and Miriam Chikukwa; and opposition National Constitutional Assembly president, Professor Lovemore Madhuku.