CCJP says March by-elections were NOT free and fair - sadly they do not know what to do next!

The Roman Catholic Church’s human rights wing, Catholic Church for Justice and Peace (CCJP), monitored the recent 27 March 2015 parliamentary by-elections and its verdict was clear – the elections were not free and fair and fear is still a big factor.

The chairperson of the Church grouping Bishop Alexio Muchabaiwa said they observed that some areas were still no-go areas for some political parties.

“The people we talked to in these areas (Chirumanzu and Mt Darwin) said they have become too vulnerable to politicians,” said CCJP chairman, Bishop Alexio Muchabaiwa. “In such areas political slogans are known more than the Ten Commandments, more than the Social teachings of the church and more than the Constitutional rights.”

This nation’s repeated failure to deliver the democratic and constitutional right of every Zimbabwean to a free, fair and credible democratic vote is at the heart of this nation’s social, economic and political problems.

We know behind the nation’s economic ruins is the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and we also know that there have been serious lawlessness including the murder of over 30 000 innocent people for selfish political gain. The only reason why these things have happen and continue to happen is because we, people, have not been able to hold these in power to account. The only way to stop them happening and end this criminal waste of resources and the tragic human suffering in our country is by ensuring free and fair elections.

It is heartening to see that CCJP have once again taken on the cause of free and fair elections with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands. Ever since Zimbabwe’s independence the country’s churches right across the board have been closer to the Zanu PF tyrannical regime than to the people the regime has brutalized.

Just before the July 2013 national elections, for example, many of Zimbabwe's church leaders were in State House hobnobbing with Mugabe and tripping over each other to appease him. They told the nation they had gone to meet the tyrant to agree effective mechanism to monitor the elections to ensure they were free and fair. Mugabe went on to blatantly rig the July 2013 elections just to underline how naïve these leaders had been not to have seen this coming.

The church leaders have greeted Mugabe’s rigged July 2013 elections with a deafening silence. Many of these leaders have in fact skulked off the political stage; they had their photo-opportunity with the tyrant in front of State House and that was all they cared about. They never cared about free and fair elections or the economic crisis and the tragic human suffering the failure to deliver this right continues to have on the nation.

The next time Zimbabwe’s church leaders gather on mass was late last year at Grace Mugabe’s Mazoe Orphanage to endorse her “baby dumping” campaign against the then Vice President Joice Mujuru. They did give her their support and in return requested that they should be rewarded with some of the former white owned farms!

It is therefore heartening that the Catholic Church has broken rank with the other churches and is condemning Zanu PF’s failure to hold free and fair elections, although they have not carefully thought through how this is to be achieved. They are banking their hopes on National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) called for in the new Copac constitution would democratize the country’s politics.

“We are hopeful that the on-going recruitment of the commissioners and staff members is the beginning of such a process. The Church is willing to be of service to that process,” said chairperson of the Church grouping Bishop Alexio Muchabaiwa.

The Catholic Church, like so many of Zimbabwe’s other civic society organizations, wholeheartedly and blindly endorsed Zimbabwe’s weak and feeble Copac constitution. It was self-evident that the passing of that constitution would not deliver free and fair elections, especially with none of the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA implemented.

Drafting the Copac constitution became the time wasting wild-goose chase for Mugabe to take the more naïve and gullible people’s minds from the critical task of implementing the reforms throughout the five years of the GNU. The new constitution was approved by a staggering 95% in the March 2013 referendum but contrary to MDC’s repeated assurance it failed to deliver free and fair elections as the July 2013 elections and 27 March 2015 by elections have shown.

Aligning the existing laws to the Copac constitution including the appointment of commissioners to such bodies as the NPRC has become the new time wasting wild-goose chase to once again take people’s minds from the important task of implementing the democratic reforms. The reform are designed to severe the umbilical cord that has allowed Mugabe to have so much political influence over the Police, Judiciary, Public Media, ZEC, NPRC, etc. their political independence has been impossible.

It is naïve to think that in the present political set up the NPRC with all its commissioners appointed by and accountable to Mugabe can ever hold the tyrant to account and force the regime to hold free and fair elections.

It is gratifying that CCJP has broken away from the rest of Zimbabwe’s church leaders in taking up the fight for free, fair and credible elections. This is a just cause and one well worth fighting for. However when the fight is against a cunning advisory like Mugabe it is important to understand when to engage him; we must implement all the democratic reforms if we want free and fair elections and to engage him over anything else is just a waste of time.