Mugabe regime feels pressure of a united coalition

By Tichaona Sibanda
7 August 2006

The embattled regime of Robert Mugabe last week Friday arrested and detained Methodist Church in Zimbabwe’s Bishop Levee Kadenge and two other pastors in the Christian Alliance in an apparent sign they are not happy with the alliance’s role in unifying the country’s opposition parties.

Bishop Kadenge was the convenor of the Save Zimbabwe Convention held last Saturday during which leaders of opposition parties pledged to form a broad alliance to fight Zanu PF. Pastors who were arrested include a blind Reverend Ancelimo Magaya and his wife, Daphne, who also acts as his assistant and Reverend Brian Mugwidi, also of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe.

Also arrested was newspaper columnist Pius Wakatama, who is a member of the Christian Alliance’s publicity section. MDC MP for Bulilima in Matebeleland South Moses Mzila-Ndlovu said the role played by churches in bringing together opposition parties will certainly come under close scrutiny from the regime because ‘they are running scarred.’

‘The initiative for a broad alliance is important for unity. It should be used to step up the fight for democracy and this serves to acknowledge the fact that no one can succeed to fight for democracy when there is a fractured opposition,’ Mzila-Ndlovu said.

He warned however that the initiative should also involve all members of different political backgrounds from the grassroots level upwards and not the other way round. Recent initiatives by the Christian Alliance to forge a united opposition front have only involved discussions at the top and the idea is yet to be sold to the ordinary man on the street.

‘As far as I know all discussions have been held at the top but what we need are discussions and consultations at the bottom to gauge the mood of the people at grassroots level,’ said the Bulilima legislator.