Tsvangirai sees Mugabe as obstacle to church initiative
By Violet Gonda
10 November 2006

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has welcomed an initiative by church leaders who created the document ‘the Zimbabwe we Want, aimed at finding a solution to crisis-ridden Zimbabwe. But he warned that Robert Mugabe remained an obstacle to the resolution of the national crisis.

The MDC president was speaking on Friday after his meeting with the church leaders.

Speaking on Newsreel Tsvangirai said although his party commends the Bishops for their efforts, he added that unless the regime removes all restrictions to allow people to express themselves there won’t be any positive change. “Mugabe is imposing serious restrictions on Zimbabweans to express themselves and the question that comes to mind is that if you don’t allow democratic debate and democratic expression, how do you expect democratic outcome?”

Critics have seen this initiative as Robert Mugabe’ s attempt to buy time by using the church. In his weekly news updated Eddie Cross, an opposition official in the Tsvangirai MDC said; “If you have low expectations it is difficult to be disappointed! So I guess when the heads of denominations here produced their much-vaunted report on the “The Zimbabwe we want” I had few illusions about the men who were involved and scant expectation. After all these are the same men (no women involved at all) who bowed and scraped whenever they were in the presence of the State President.”

“These are the same people who said little about Gukurahundi and who co-operated with the State in trying to hide what actually went on during that shameful era…these are the same men who said nothing when Murambatsvina was being implemented.”

Cross added; “If the initiative of the Church was to produce some sort of action on the part of Zanu PF and the President, we would all welcome their actions. However, at best they have added their voices to those who have been speaking out on national issues and at worst their report will be used by Zanu PF to prevaricate on the issues that confront us all in our daily lives. I see no sign that they are going to move one inch.”

When asked if he agreed with sentiments that the church is being used to humanise Mugabe, Tsvangirai responded by saying; “Above all Zimbabweans have remained sceptical about this process. Even the Bishops themselves cannot inspire any confidence because of the initial suspicions. As long as it is an initiative that appears to be controlled by Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF then it loses credibility. And I told them that this is the danger that this initiative may fail in that category.”

Tsvangirai added that Mugabe’s initial reaction to the document showed that he was in a state of denial.

The document has been written by the three main Christian groups in Zimbabwe; the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches. The church leaders say they will embark on a nationwide tour to launch the document in each province. The alliance is proposing a review of tough media and security laws and the establishment of an independent land commission to ensure fair distribution of land, in addition to issues like constitutional reforms, national reconciliation and economic policies.

Tsvangirai said; “Generally we found the document contained converging views with our own roadmap to legitimacy - a document we presented two to three months ago. The problem is not about the ideas. The problem is how to translate those ideas into a resolution of the national crisis.”