Mnangagwa accuses the clerics of being biased towards Chamisa

 Mnangagwa accuses the clerics of being biased towards Chamisa
Published: 22 October 2019
AS ZIMBABWE's political and economic crisis deepens, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has suggested that the church is taking sides in the turmoil - while also savaging opposition leader Nelson Chamisa for allegedly fuelling the national upheavals, the Daily News reported.

Mnangagwa's surprising claims come as he recently swatted fervent suggestions by the church for the troubled country to suspend elections for the next seven years, to allow the nation to heal and for much-needed political and economic reforms to be put in place.

The claims also come as Mnangagwa and Chamisa have come under growing pressure all round to end their long running feud, engage in talks and work together for the good of long suffering Zimbabweans and the country.

In his response to the recent calls by the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHoCD) that is represented by executive secretary Rev Kenneth Mtata, to suspend electoral processes, the under-pressure Zanu-PF leader said Chamisa was seeking to "rob" him of his victory in last year's harmonised elections using a "biased" church.

"It (the MDC) also swore to intensify its campaign for illegal Western sanctions against Zimbabwe, underlining its perverse pleasure in Zimbabwe's continued economic decline, all in the selfish hope for political gain.
"This was the stark meaning and import of its kudira jecha (spoiling methods) threat, which threat of violence it made good on August 1, 2018, and again in mid-January 2019.

"The same party continues to campaign for sanctions, and thus to take a stance against the country's economic recovery and re-engagement with the international community," Mnangagwa said in a 19-page letter to ZHoCD.

"While my government has opened democratic space, the MDC … has, for political expediency, adopted a political insurgency strategy to undermine the state, to sabotage the economy and to use the ordinary person as cannon fodder, in pursuit of selfish political ends.

"The generalisation and arrogation of the current polarisation in the (church's) document, in my view, grossly understates the culpable role played by the MDC … and its external allies in bringing this about," Mnangagwa added.

Mnangagwa and his misfiring Cabinet have increasingly attracted a lot of flak over their stewardship of the country's dying economy.
So bad is the economic crisis engulfing Zimbabwe that many long suffering citizens and Western countries have pointedly said that Zimbabweans were better off under the ruinous tenure of the late former president Robert Mugabe.

Nearly two years after toppling Mugabe - who died last month aged 95 years old - Mnangagwa and his government have found the task of mending the country's broken economy onerous.

As a result, the country is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, as Zimbabwe battles soaring inflation, skyrocketing prices of goods and services, as well as shortages of power, fuel, water and critical medicines in hospitals
Alarmed by the worsening rot, many groups including those in Zanu-PF and the MDC, are pushing for dialogue between Mnangagwa and Chamisa.

The president also said in his letter to the church that while he agreed with the need for political reforms, these were meant "for our own good as a nation, and not to please any external parties".
He called on churches to sanction Chamisa for allegedly using violence to "ensure the all-important ethic of magnanimity in victory, and grace, honour and respect in defeat".

"The solution to our challenges cannot subsist in robbing the winner of his victory and popular mandate in order to hand it over or split a portion of it as reward to an ungracious loser, whose first reflex is to resort to political violence as a negotiating tool.

"I do not need to remind leaders of the ZHoCD that, in effect what they are asking of me and my party, Zanu-PF, is that we repudiate the will of the Zimbabwean people by surrendering the constitutional mandate they gave us in the July 2018 harmonised elections, merely to accommodate a losing party, and out of fear that it might become more violent in the future, as it regularly threatens, and that it might withhold its co-operation with the winner, as it is already doing, in order to press for an extra-electoral political settlement," Mnangagwa said further.

"The agenda you stake in those seven politically lean years is full of items that easily identify with the manifesto of a known political party, and that adamantly repudiates all progress registered to date under my administration … I hope this is mere inadvertency on your part, lest your bona fides get deservedly questioned," he added.

Mnangagwa has been at loggerheads with Chamisa since last year's hotly-disputed elections, which the youthful opposition leader alleges were rigged in favour of his Zanu-PF rival.
But Mnangagwa's victory was later upheld by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that Chamisa had failed to provide evidence that he had won the polls.

Since then, Mnangagwa, who was initially feted like a king when he replaced Mugabe in November 2017, has found himself and his government facing criticism over their stewardship of the country.

The worsening economic rot has triggered dissent among Zimbabweans who are reeling from price hikes, soaring inflation and other myriad problems.

In response, authorities have resorted to using disproportionate force, including deploying troops to break up demonstrations.
- dailynews
Tags: Mnangagwa,

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