Government has engaged the Holy See’s papal Pro-Nuncio to
Zimbabwe, Archbishop Marek Zalewski, to establish whether a pastoral letter
issued by the Zimbabwe Catholics Bishops Conference (ZCBC) was a reflection of
the official attitude of the Holy See towards Harare.
This comes as Government has described the pastoral letter
as a gross misrepresentation of the political situation in the country, which
it said aligned itself with a recent wave of deliberately misleading media hype
portraying a country in crisis.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi has made a comprehensive response to the pastoral letter.
He said the Government had tasked Foreign Affairs and
International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo to meet the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio
Archbishop Zalewski on issues raised by the bishops that cast aspersions on the
Government.
Minister Moyo subsequently met Achbishop Zalewski
yesterday, but details of the meeting were not made available to the Press by
the time of going to print.
In their letter, the bishops said: “It is not clear to us
as your bishops that the national leadership that we have has the knowledge,
social skill, emotional stability and social orientation to handle the issues
we face as a nation.”
In response, Minister Ziyambi said the statement by the
bishops “constitutes an outright insult to the person of President Mnangagwa
and his entire Government and is couched in a language decidedly unbecoming of
an institution such as the Catholic Church.
“Given that the venerable bishops represent the Catholic
Church, Government is compelled to directly engage the Vatican to ascertain
whether or not such statements reflect the official attitude of the Holy See
towards Zimbabwe’s leadership or whether these are merely the views of the
various individuals concerned.”
Minister Ziyambi said the bishops did not engage the
Government, but instead relied on false information that is peddled on social
media with respect to the several allegations they made against the Government.
Since assuming office, said Minister Ziyambi, President
Mnangagwa has had an inclusive engagement with all religious groupings and his
appointment of church representatives to the Presidential Advisory Council
illustrated this open-arms approach to dialogue and engagement.
“Notwithstanding the deliberately provocative and divisive
nature of the pastoral letter, the President’s commitment to the path of
engagement with all religious communities remains steadfast and solid,” he
said.
He said it was not true that the Government was not acting
decisively on corruption as several high-profile people, including Cabinet
ministers and those close to the President, had been arraigned before criminal
courts over graft.
Minister Ziyambi said it was not true that journalist-cum
activist Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested for exposing corruption as suggested by
the social media and the bishops, but for inciting violence, a quite different
charge.
He said several media organisations have reported about
allegations of corruption in some State institutions, but none of the
journalists have been arrested.
On the State institutions, Minister Ziyambi said it was not
true that the courts were captured as the Government has lost a majority of
cases it has disputed in courts.
“For instance, in the period between February 1 to May 15,
2020, the High Court in Harare heard a total of 25 cases in which Government
was a party to proceedings against various litigants. Of these cases, only six
were ruled in favour of Government. The remaining 19 were ruled against
Government. For the bishops to suggest that the Judiciary is not independent is
demonstrably false and one can only wonder at the motivation behind such
misrepresentation,” said Minister Ziyambi.
He said all constitutional commissions were independent
because their autonomy was guaranteed by the Constitution.
Minister Ziyambi gave an example of the Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission that published several reports critical to the Government.
“Although Government has strongly disagreed with these
reports, neither the Commission nor any of its members have attracted any
adverse consequences,” he said.
On nation building, Minister Ziyambi said Government had
gone to extraordinary lengths to create a spirit of peace, unity and cohesion
among all Zimbabweans including inviting international organisations to observe
elections, establishing the Motlanthe Commission to openly investigate cases of
politically motivated violence, and invited all political parties to a dialogue
platform called the Political Actors Dialogue.
He said President Mnangagwa established the Presidential
Advisory Council where well known Government critic, Pastor Shingi Munyeza, is
not only a member but also a Government-appointed director of Zimbabwe
Newspapers.
Minister Ziyambi said Bishops must have noted that recently
Pastor Munyeza has used his sermons to call for the removal of the Government
in a language that could not be described as moderate but there have been no
consequences visited against him.
On Gukurahundi, Minister Ziyambi said the President opened
dialogue with Matabeleland-based civil society organisations and traditional
leaders and called on people to freely discuss what happened without fear of
arrest or victimisation. Herald
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