Anglican Mainstream

The Zimbabwe Christian Alliance arranged the prayer meeting following which Morgan Tsvangirai was brutally beaten. Its Director, Useni Sibanda, spoke with Anglican Mainstream this week.

The ZCA is a network of Christian leaders in Zimbabwe that came together to form a national platform in order for them to be able to speak, influence and transform the social and political situation in Zimbabwe. The ZCA’s main goal is social transformation. It is made up of groups that include the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice, Churches in Harare, Churches in Manicaland, Zimbabwe National Pastors’ Conference, people like Archbishop Pius Nube of Bulawayo, and the Methodist Bishop of Harare. These are the leaders who make up the ZCA. The idea and ethos behind it is to bring a peaceful transformation to the situation in Zimbabwe.

Since its launch in February 2006 at the Anglican Cathedral in Bulawayo, the ZCA organised civic society and political formations and a campaign that has been called the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. This is the campaign that on March 11 2007 called for a prayer meeting at Harare Grounds which historically is where the Union Jack was lowered and the Zimbabwe flag raised up at Independence. That meeting was disrupted violently by the police and led to the brutal assault of civic and political leadership. People like Morgan Tsvangirai were brutally beaten. These people are part of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign under the leadership of the ZCA. We then subsequently held another meeting of April 14, at St Patrick’s Church, Makokoba, The police had sent a memo to us to say that they would shoot on sight any of the organisers on the morning of that Saturday. We went ahead with our preparation and organisation. I remember speaking to Archbishop Pius Nube. And he said, “No we have to go ahead”. The police phoned us late on Friday night to say that the meeting can go ahead. Over 1500 people attended despite the fact that they did not know that the police had already sanctioned the meeting so that they could take that risk.

A lot of things happened because of the events of March 11. The Southern Africa Development Community (SADEC) peacefully try to negotiate and resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. Because of that event the whole world, the European Union, the United States are pushing for the situation to be resolved. We are working on dialogue between Zanu Patriotic Front, the Movement for Democratic Change and Civic Society groups under the Save Zimbabwe Campaign and we hope that these talks will manage to produce the following results. We are looking at a new constitution for next year’s elections that will be held in March 2008; we are looking for the repeal of legislation that makes it illegal for independent newspapers to operate in Zimbabwe. When all that is removed we hope to have free and fair elections. That is the role that the church is playing. It is taking that leading role in social transformation.

AM What pressure can be brought on Southern African states to encourage Zimbabwe to reform?

There is an opening at the G8 meeting that will be in Germany. Thabo Mbeke will be attending that meeting. Our idea is to call the faith groups to start lobbying from now onwards on the G8 countries which have got leverage on South Africa which is the leader of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. South Africa can be pressurised by the G8 countries to ensure that South Africa becomes a neutral honest broker and that we take the process to its logical conclusion in terms of having a new constitution and in terms of repressive legislation being repealed. Also the fact that South Africa is hosting the 2010 Football World Cup is a point of pressure as well. They want to have that World Cup but if Zimbabwe is in crisis with what is happening now, it will be difficult for the World Cup to be held in South Africa. So that is a pressure point.

AM Are any of the World Cup matches due to be held in Zimbabwe?

The idea is that some of the practice sessions could be held in Zimbabwe. The host country will ask some of the neighbouring countries to host practice matches, because the climate is the same. But with our crisis in Zimbabwe it will be very difficult. There are almost 3 million refugees now from Zimbabwe living in South Africa.

AM. Why is South Africa so coy about addressing the problems in Zimbabwe?

South Africa is not keen to see changes in Zimbabwe because they are afraid that in South Africa COSATU, which is a labour movement, might think of forming a party and form the main opposition to ANC. In Zambia, President Chiluba was voted in through labour. The MDC which is the main opposition in Zimbabwe is actually from the labour movement. Its leaders were the leaders of the labour movement. They are afraid that the same may happen in South Africa.

AM How did the ZCA come to be?

The energy behind it is that in May 2005 the government demolished houses. People in Bulawayo whose homes were demolished moved into the cities to seek for shelter. They moved into the Catholic Church, they moved in the Anglican Church, into the Methodist Church, into Charismatic Chapels. There were thousands of these people. The pastors began to meet and say: “How could we feed these people?” They could not chase them away. After that process of feeding and taking care of the people, there was so much energy spent on that, they began to say that what is the problem that has brought these people into our churches? During that reflective process, people began to say maybe we need to deal with the issue of bad governance which is the root cause of this crisis. We begin to see a new theology among these people. They began to question a lot of things they had previously believed in, to look at biblical texts as part of the struggle to actually bring democracy to Zimbabwe in a fresh way. All this is leading to a new way of practicing Christianity and a new way for the leadership to be very reflective in their approach.

AMIf people want to be in touch with you or support you in prayer or receive information how should they contact you?

The best way to do it is that we are partnering with Tear Fund Southern Africa Desk in the UK. Their officer responsible for Zimbabwe will be able to connect them with us. Their website is www.tearfund.org.

Our website www.zimbabwechristianalliance.org is still under construction, but putting Zimbabwe Christian Alliance into Google will bring up a lot of information. The best e-mail address to use is zca07@yahoo.com.

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