Disturbed and indeed appalled by the increasing economic, social and political tension that is prevailing in the country, which in turn, creates so much negative energies, anxiety, a sense of hopelessness, uncertainty, panic and despondency, making the lives of the poor and vulnerable members of our communities that include rural and urban women, widows, orphans, children people with disabilities unbearable.
We are perturbed by the runaway inflation that is rendering all our efforts to survive useless and relegating the ordinary hard working and resilient Zimbabweans into the extreme margins of poverty whose effects are not only devastating but are also dehumanizing, and in violation our rights in a country that is a signatory to the UN Charter and several UN conventions and protocols, whose bill of rights in the constitution seeks to uphold, protect and promote the fundamental human rights, in particular the RIGHT TO LIFE WITH DIGNITY that underpins the rest of subsequent Human rights and freedoms, that the state parties have an obligation to ensure that every citizen, regardless of race, colour, sex, age, religion, political affiliation or creed enjoys.
We watch with disdain as the rights of citizens are being taken away by those competing for State Power and we are convinced that the level of polarization and rising tensions the political arena, where politicians are moved by greed and selfish ambition more than the need to represent us and facilitate a conducive environment for economic growth that will, in turn impact positively of the social life of the ordinary citizens, resulting in the achievement of the Zimbabwe Vision 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals as well as set the tone for the Africa Agenda 2063 is indeed traverse of justice and violation of our right as citizens.
We anticipated that after the 2018 elections, political bickering and grandstanding would end, ushering in an era of nation building in the wake of the coming in of the second republic. We anticipated a better future through efficient people centric service delivery but we are getting unending calls for violence and mobilization of citizens to cause instability and a possible war situation simply to gratify the greed and unfettered desire for power by some sections in the political arena.
We, the ordinary people are tired of tension and commotion being caused by those who are competing for state power and sacrificing our rights, liberties and development agenda on the altar of politics for selfish reasons.
Indeed our politicians are not listening to us but to themselves, to their puffed up egos that are driven by greed and self-service at the expense of the suffering masses and this is extremely unfortunate.
We are aware that such politicians are in connivance with various actors in the diplomatic, Civic and business sectors as well as some ill-informed Diaspora based Zimbabweans to execute economic sabotage activities. These activities are frustrating any move and stalling every effort by the elected government of Zimbabwe in an evil endeavour to stimulate “spontaneous reaction” by citizens and to use the artificially induced poverty as a tool to force citizens into chaos and pandemonium and to fan a possible bloody civil war that will result in them achieving their selfish desire of attaining state power illegally.
We are aware of the shenanigans going on in communities, major towns and on the economic and diplomatic fronts and as citizens we are not as naïve as those planning to trigger the so called “peaceful” protests think.
We want to make it categorical clear, without ambiguity, fear or favour, that we as Churches and progressive/ developmental Civic Society will expose those who are involved in organizing these activities that are likely to put our lives in jeopardy.
As churches we have members and structures in every community all over the country and we are noting the shenanigans that include the manipulation of some innocent and poor young people, women, church leaders through the use of money to mobilize citizens into the so called civic action that will be used to “corner the regime and put it into a dilemma” and force the military to spill blood and trigger international outcry, tarnish the image of the country as well as to justify military intervention by foreign forces all for the benefit of greedy civic and political.
We are aware of robust and extensive media misinformation strategy that include anonymous social media alarmist messages that are aimed at creating citizens panic as well as the setting up of systems to collect data and generate adverse reports that are going to be used as justification to invite foreign intervention, so as to get some politicians who will work for certain interests into power by back door.
We are also aware that the other party is mobilizing a counter reaction to the so called civic action and we are warning both parties to cease fire and consider the plight of the ordinary people who are suffering, not only as a result of government austerity policy, but also as a result of foreign intervention and manipulation of systems in order to frustrate the citizens and cause a citizens revolt by the residue of people who used to do the gatekeeping of systems in the former administration, who want a return to the former status quo and that the current so called mainstream opposition is in cohorts with such people who are bent of returning Mugabe’s proxies via backdoor.
We are aware of the shenanigans that are happening under cover, by those who cannot wait for the constitutionally set time to legally effect regime change through constitutional means and we remind them that time to change a regime is coming in 2023 according to our constitution, anything outside that is illegal and we will cooperate with the state and mobilize citizens to be vigilant in defending their rights by ensuring that culprits are identified and action is taken by law enforcement in order to protect the vulnerable members in our communities that suffer the most when violence occurs.
The same constitution whose section 59 guarantees every citizen the right to demonstrate and to present petitions, stresses that… “but these rights must be exercised peacefully’. It is the same constitution that dictates how a government is removed and how political power is attained, “through periodic elections” and anything done outside that is illegal and we will play our part as citizens to defend our rights and protect our constitution.
We stand in defence of the poor and marginalized who are being manipulated and used to further the selfish interests of politicians and we warn that THE BLOOD THAT WAS SHED DURING THE LIBERATION OF ZIMBABWE AND THE BLOOD OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD THAT WAS SHED ON THE CROSS AT CALVARY IS ENOUGH.
NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO CAUSE ANY MORE BLOODSHED IN ZIMBABWE ANYMORE IT IS FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Those who want war may as well go and volunteer in Libya or Syria)
In light of these, we therefore:
Call upon all political parties to refrain from organizing and instigating violence and we remind all political players, activists, business community, diplomatic community and donors that Violence begets violence. Violence is a sign of weakness and only those who are weak in character resort to violence.
We remind every politician that violence does not solve what they think they are trying to solve but it destroys what we have taken a lot of time and resources to build, classical examples are Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, other countries that went through the so called Citizen led revolution and have remained volatile up to now and in such situations, it is the poor women and children that suffer most.
Let us learn a lesson from Venezuela where the ordinary citizens are suffering and the number of refugees escaping the country is ballooning while the sponsors of the so called revolution, the Americans are enjoying their lives.
Sudan is another example where power is eluding those who orchestrated the revolution and has been hijacked by the military; there are no guarantees that anyone in the current leadership will be the one leading after that hence extra caution in needed in handling such.
We want to remind the Community of Bulawayo and the nation at large that in January 2019, we lost lives, property and our brothers, sisters, mothers and aunties are languishing in prison, while it is our constitutional right to protest, we aught to refrain from violence bearing in mind that Bulawayo has been a victim of violence and we cannot keep repeating the same.
We call upon ALL CITIZENS IN ALL COMMUNITIES to desist from illegal activities being organized under the guise of the right to protest, where the youths are being motivated and equipped to participate in protests that may be potentially fatal. Let us learn from August 1, 2018 and January 14 to 16, those who died and those who were arrested have been forgotten and their families are suffering alone while the politicians are living large and continue to sacrifice you on their alter of their greed.
We call upon our Diaspora community to desist from supporting and funding unrests in the country where there are no guarantees for the safety of their very own loved ones too.
We call upon the young people, in particular the activists and student movements, to cease fire and focus on their education, to desist from sacrificing their lives and careers on the altar of appeasing politicians who are promising you empty promises trying to use you as instruments of violence.
We implore all sober minded citizens using social media to use social media responsibly for peace, unity and development and not for promoting anarchy and despondence whose impact we may not be able to control.
We urge every responsible citizen in every community to report to the police, as is a constitutional responsibility for all citizens to promote peace, any one seen in their community mobilizing, distributing drugs, arms and anything that can be used to cause harm and cause terror to the nearest police station and we urge the Zimbabwe Republic Police and other security actors to be vigilant and protect the citizens and property according to their responsibilities as espoused in the constitution and open toll free lines or set up digital surveillance systems in volatile areas.
We further appeal to fellow Civic Society Leaders to remember that a war has no guaranteed winner, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Venezuela are current examples where even those who sparked the fire are failing to control it and we cannot wilfully destroy lives and livelihoods simply because we want our friends to govern by all means necessary. Let us be responsible and put the sanctity of human life ahead of the money from our sponsors and selfish parochial interests and work for peace, development and human dignity.
We urge fellow church leaders to act responsibly, bearing in mind that the Church has a role to preach the message of reconciliation and peace and not to be involved in organizing and instigating violence that may result in the loss of lives.
We appeal to the Regional Bodies, SADC and the African Union to consider putting the Zimbabwean conflict on the agenda and facilitate dialogue that will not result in the gratification of politicians like the previous GNUs that Zimbabwe has gone through, but in the setting up and a people centric all inclusive dialogue, whose outcome will promote peace and development for the benefit of the ordinary citizens, and in the dialogue table, those representing the ordinary citizens are to be involved
As the ordinary people who are affected by the ravaging economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the US and her allies, we unequivocally call for the unconditional removal of sanctions that are not affecting the so called targeted elite who have means and options to survive but are negatively impacting of the poor citizens who are also victims of poor policy decisions and corruption, exacerbating the suffering and creating a scapegoat for failure by the politicians.
We call upon the Government of Zimbabwe and all stakeholders to engage in broad consultations and come up with a win-win people centric economic framework that is rights based. DIALOGUE IS THE ONLY SOLUTION OUT THE QUAGMIRE BEING FACED BY OUR NATION.
WE ARE CALLING UPON ALL CHRISTIANS WHO CONSTITUTE AT LEAST 70% OF ZIMBABWE’S POPULATION, AND THOSE OF OTHER FAITHS TO OFFER ALL KINDS OF PRAYERS AND SUPPLICATIONS FOR THE GREAT NATION OF ZIMBABWE THAT IS UNDER THREAT OF BECOMING THE SOMALIA/ LIBYA/ IRAQ OR SYRIA OF SOUTHERN AFRICA.
WE ENCOURAGE WOMEN’S GROUPS IN EVERY PART OF ZIMBABWE TO MEET AND PRAY FOR PEACE IN ZIMBABWE, WE URGE ALL BISHOPS, APOSTLES, PASTORS, PROPHETS, REVERENDS AND EVERY ONE WHO IS LEADING IN ANY CONGREGATION TO MOBILIZE THEIR MEMBERS TO PRAY FOR PEACE IN ZIMBABWE, WE APEAL TO EVERY CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD TO PRAY FOR PEACE IN ZIMBABWE.
WE STAND TOGETHER, RESOLUTE IN DEFENSE OF OUR BELOVED COUNTRY AND WE REFUSE TO BE USED AS MECHANTS OF EVIL TO DESTROY OUR OWN COUNTRY.
ZIMBABWE SHALL LIVE AND NOT DIE AND HER ENERMIES SHALL BE SCATTERED WHILE SHE RAISES HER HORN AS THE HORN OF A UNICORN AND THE PROPHETS OF DOOM SHALL BE ASHAMED AS THE COMMANDER OF THE ARMIES OF HEAVEN FIGHTS FOR US.
MALUPHAKANYISWE UDUMO LWAYO, YIZWA IMITHANDAZO YETHU (thina abantu kazana, intandane labafelwakazi) NKOSI SIKELEL’ IZIMBABWE.
