Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
REPRESENTATIVES from different political parties have been urged to bury the hatchet as the country heads towards elections and respect the choice of the electorate as this will help to develop the country.
This emerged during an interparty dialogue meeting that was held recently at the Brethren in Christ Church Gwanda branch. Aspiring candidates were urged to accept the outcome of the elections.
The dialogue which was organised by the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance provided the opportunity for the political party representatives to interact and share their views on the electoral process. A prayer session was also conducted.
In an interview executive director of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA), Reverend Useni Sibanda said the church fraternity has a crucial role to play in ensuring that peace prevails in the country.
“There is need for continuous engagement as we head towards the electoral process as we are looking forward to having a peaceful election. The target is to ensure that the period leading to the elections is peaceful and that peace is maintained during and after elections. As the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, we continue to engage political parties and citizens to ensure that we are moving together.
“That’s why we have even rolled out a prayer programme titled #5min4Zim where we are encouraging citizens of the country to pray for peaceful elections for five minutes every day at 1PM up until we hold elections,” he said.
Pastoral peace ambassador in the Gwanda Local Peace Committee and National Peace and Reconciliation (NPRC) Matabeleland South provincial peace committee deputy chairperson, Pastor Phathisiwe Dube said the political parties also used the dialogue meeting to discuss some of the pertinent issues that affect candidates. She said they also discussed issues that political parties wanted to see addressed.
“We met as the church fraternity and political parties in Gwanda and the main objective of the programme was to pray. Before the prayer session representatives from different political parties, some who are in office and some who are aspiring candidates came together and discussed what can be done to ensure that the electoral process is peaceful. The pastors also took an opportunity to pray from aspiring candidates,” she said.
Gwanda Pastor’s Fraternal chairperson and vice chairperson of the Gwanda Local Peace Committee, Reverend Othulani Mathe said it is important for political parties to meet with Christian fraternity as both sectors were concerned with the development of the nation.
“As we go through the electoral processes it’s important that we are on the same page because after elections we still remain one nation and one community. It has become a common thing that during the election period there is a lot of violence and conflicts that is why we have to have these continuous engagements until people change their mindset.
“The dialogue of peace is a continuous process which requires the involvement of all stakeholders. President Mnangagwa has said “ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo” and we can’t build our country if we are continuously in conflict. We have to come to a point where political parties work together to build the nation rather than working against each other.
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