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ZIMBABWE: Ruling party looks for spiritual support
IRIN News
June 26, 2006

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54183

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe's political divisions now extend to church pulpits, with an alliance of spiritual leaders backing President Robert Mugabe, and a rival group of priests protesting the government's human rights record.

At a prayer meeting which attracted thousands at a stadium outside the capital Harare on Sunday, Mugabe said: "Let the church come in and point out where there are shortcomings, sins of commission or omission. We must combine our strengths in rebuilding our economy."

But in what was seen as a not-so veiled reference to his arch-critic, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, Mugabe warned: "When the church leaders start being political we regard them as political creatures and we are vicious in that area."

The prayer meeting was organised by the Ecumenical Peace Initiative (EPI), a newly formed alliance of churches seen as broadly pro-government. They include the Anglican Church led by controversial Archbishop Nolbert Kunonga, sections of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference and various indigenous and evangelical faiths.

The EPI was born out of a meeting last month between Mugabe and invited church leaders to discuss Zimbabwe's crippling political and economic crisis. "We know we have a government that we must support, interact with and draw attention to our concerns," Anglican Bishop of Harare Patson Nempare was quoted as saying after the talks.

While the new initiative seeks to work with the government, another ecumenical group the Christian Alliance has a radically different calling. A league of protestant and Pentecostal churches formed last year to help the victims of Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Trash), it has staged anti-government protests in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries.

According to secretary-general Jonah Gokova, the alliance was created in response to pressure from congregations that questioned the silence of churches over Murambatsvina, a three-month urban cleanup campaign which smashed illegal settlements and affected an estimated 700,000 people.

Catholic archbishop Ncube, who has clashed repeatedly with Mugabe, told IRIN by telephone from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, that church leaders who had aligned themselves with the government were compromised.

"The church should be a safe haven for the tortured and abandoned. This government continues to abuse people's rights and church leaders should be warned that their solidarity with those who have caused so much suffering leaves the victims feeling betrayed," he said.

However, head of the Christian Denominations and Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Bishop Manhanga, said some church leaders recognised that working with the government was the best way to heal the country and find a lasting solution to its political and economic trauma.

"We refuse to join our detractors and short-sighted citizens who do not see anything good about the country," said Manhanga.

University of Zimbabwe political analyst John Makumbe said Sunday's prayer event demonstrated the government's success in driving a wedge between the churches - a key constituency as Zimbabweans, worn down by six straight years of recession, increasingly turn to religion for salvation.

The ruling ZANU-PF party blames the economic crisis on western "sanctions" following controversial presidential polls in 2002, which were marred by pro-government violence. More than 80 percent of Zimbabweans live below the poverty line, while inflation has soared to 1,200 percent.

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