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Zimbabwe Briefing - Issue 98
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (SA Regional Office)
November 21, 2012

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Churches In Zambia In Solidarity With Zimbabwe

Churches in Zambia pledged their solidarity to the Zimbabwean people in their struggle for a free and fair election due next year. Reverend Father Cleophas Lungu, Secretary General of Zambia Episcopal Conference, and Rev Susanne Matale pledged their support in separate meetings with a Zimbabwean civil society delegation in Zambia last week.

Speaking to the CSOs delegation, Rev Father Lungu held that the CSOs working together with the church is a potent tool for mobilising people on the ground and protecting the people's rights. He said that this was illustrated by the Zambian experience where Caritas Zambia, which is the social wing of the church, played a crucial role in the last elections in Zambia by implementing Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT).

Rev Father Lungu promised the Zimbabwean delegation that the church in Zambia has always been seized with the Zimbabwe issue, and is high on their priorities. In that regard, they will continue to try and influence the

Zambian government to persuade their Zimbabwean counterparts to implement key reforms stipulated in the GPA which will ensure a free and fair election in Zimbabwe. He referred to the founding President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, who said that Zambia can never be free if our neighbours are not free, and that this still applies to Zimbabwe today.

In another meeting, Reverend Susanne Matale of the General Christian Council of Zambia also pledged solidarity, promising to organise an indaba on Zimbabwe in the region through the churches so as to come up with key demands which will assist Zimbabwe have peace, stability and entrenched democracy. She congratulated Crisis Coalition for the good work they are doing around the region in the quest to restore the dignity of the Zimbabwean people.

She also noted that she is distressed about the situation in Zimbabwe and that there is need for concerted regional efforts that are coordinated if the challenges facing Zimbabwe are to be overcome. She stressed that 'there is need to link with the church in Zimbabwe, as Zimbabwe is on our agenda as FOCISA, and we will be doing an Indaba on Zimbabwe as a region and come up with a way forward together, and have a coordinated plan and program'

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