Church leaders join regime change bandwagon

The group, led by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe president, Dr Goodwill Shana, has come up with a position paper with demands that they are presenting to Sadc Ministers of Justice.
It has also emerged that most of the information contained in their paper link with the MDC-T’s election demands.
The paper, leaked to our Harare Bureau, is titled “The role of the church in nation building in Zimbabwe.”
Highly placed Government sources described the tour as a “regime change plot” saying the clergymen were selling an MDC-T position paper.
The group operating under the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations was in Mozambique last month where they met the Minister of Justice, Judge Maria Benvida Delfina Levi, without an invitation.
The other five clergymen are Bishop Naison Shava (head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church), Bishop Alexio Muchabaiwa, Fathers Edward Ndete, Frederick Chirombo (Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference) and Father Richard Menatsi (Southern African Catholic Bishops secretary general).
A representative of the group, Bishop Shava yesterday confirmed the visit but said it had nothing to do with Zimbabwe’s political parties.
“The visit has got nothing to do with political parties in the country. Anyway, talk to Dr Shana… he is the one we mandated to respond to media inquiries and I cannot comment further than that,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from Dr Shana were fruitless as his personal assistant only identified as Chipo, said he was out of the country on church business.
Presenting their paper to Judge Levi, the clergymen reportedly said they were engaged in various ways to “try and resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe”.
The group said it expected key reforms to take place in the country after the completion of the constitution making process.
“Our own desire is that there should be a people driven constitution…After the adoption of the new constitution, we expect political, legislative, electoral, media and security reforms to take place…before holding free and fair elections,” read part of the paper.
The clergymen said they had no faith in the country’s voter’s roll adding that Sadc should explore a “more appropriate” model for monitoring elections.
“Zimbabwe needs a new voters’ roll. We believe Sadc needs to explore a more appropriate model of monitoring elections. We urge your Government (Mozambique) to push for a Sadc presence on the ground six months ahead of any election.
“During the pre-election period Sadc would have to open satellite offices in provinces and districts, which will remain open during and well after the election.”
The group said Sadc’s presence in the country after an election should not be “less than a month”.
“Such presence on the ground would improve our electoral atmosphere especially by curbing violence and possible rigging of elections.”
A Government official yesterday said some clergymen in the country were being used by the MDC-T and foreigners to effect regime change in                      Zimbabwe.
“There is just something fishy about their visit because everything in their document coincides with the MDC-T position paper,” the official said.
“How can they move around the region with such an ill-informed document? The contents simply show that they have got a hidden agenda.
“They are busy talking about reforms instead of concentrating on their core business. Their interest is a cause for concern,” he said.
The issue of reforms in the country, especially in the security sector, is being pushed by agents of regime change who want to reverse the gains of independence.
MDCT spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora, yesterday said his party had nothing to do with the pastors’ regional offensive.
“The pastors are acting on their own without the insistence of the MDC-T. The coincidence in demands might be because we are seeing similar things on the ground,” he said.   
However, ZanuPF argues that the country’s security sector needs no reform because it is the envy of so many countries in the world as it is highly disciplined and professionally managed.
The reputation of the security forces has seen them participate in numerous United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide.
Every year groups of Zimbabwean police officers serve under the UN peacekeeping missions.