“Church representative bodies and pastors must have been
engaged and consulted before announcing any decision affecting them was made,”
Chamisa said on Twitter.
“No government command decisions must be made without prior
adequate consultations with those to be affected.”
Church leaders have insisted that the new measures allowing
the resumption of religious gatherings were not feasible and called for
dialogue with government on practical measures to contain the spread of
Covid-19 among worshippers.
Government on Wednesday allowed churches to reopen for
sit-in services, but only for fully vaccinated congregants.
The government directive warned that health personnel would be deployed to
churches to ensure compliance with Covid-19 regulations that church leaders,
who violated the measures would be arrested.
In a joint statement by the Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe national executive committee and the national advisory council issued
yesterday, churches said they were keen to engage the government to reach a
mutual understanding and decision in the fight against the pandemic.
“While churches are at liberty to gather in line with
government requirements according to their own discretion, in our humble and
considered opinion, the vaccination requirement amounts to imposition of
mandatory vaccination and imposes a discriminatory, unfair and inequitable
burden on the church that does not happen to other sectors,” the churches said.
“The government’s directive amounts to prohibiting the
church from meeting at all because the church, by its very nature cannot meet
just for the vaccinated while excluding all the under 18 age group who do not
qualify for vaccination, and the millions who want to be vaccinated, but cannot
due to the unavailability of enough vaccines or inadequate manpower at clinics
where thousands are being turned away every day.
“There are still many in our midst that still need to be
convinced about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.”
Statistics released by the Health ministry showed that as
of Friday a total of 2 013 340 people had received the first jab against
Covid-19 while only 1 179 687 were fully vaccinated.
Health deputy minister John Mangwiro referred questions to
the permanent secretary Jasper Chimedza, who was not picking calls. Standard
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