An unresolved August 2023 election dispute has thrown the lives of ordinary citizens into chaos, amid a deep economic collapse as the majority struggle to put food on the table, Catholic bishops said yesterday.
Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has refused to accept the results of the coordinated elections held in August 2023 in which President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner.
Chamisa, who recently sacked the Citizens Alliance for Change, the party he led in the elections, due to infiltration by Mnangagwa’s Zanu-PF party, said the election was “massive fraud.”
In their message marking the beginning of the Lenten season for the Catholic Church, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference highlighted the growing fear among citizens of authoritarian rule under a one-party state.
This comes after Zanu PF secured a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly following a series of recalls of CPC lawmakers by self-imposed interim Secretary-General Singiso Chabangu.
“Unresolved political rivalries since the August 2023 elections have not left the country in a good position. “Domestically, there are fears among people that we are heading towards a one-party state, where democracy dies a slow death.”
“At the regional level, there remains a belief that we can solve these political challenges if we are willing to put our heads together as people of good will,” the bishops added.
ZCBC said Zimbabwe continues to suffer from family displacement due to the poor performance of the economy. The government’s decision to increase taxes at a time when ordinary people cannot afford a meal a day has worsened the family situation, they said, adding that the poor and elderly have become unbearably expensive due to the sharp increases in living. Commodity price.
The Catholic bishops said most of the challenges were the result of “bad politics” as leaders were implementing failed policies.
“While some of these ills are the result of natural disasters, most are man-made and not accidental. World poverty is a direct result of the political and economic policies of governments, political parties and big corporations.
“It is the result of policies and systems. With bad policies and failed economic systems and their devastating effects, many people feel hopeless.
They said that people felt frustrated with their leaders and institutions and thus lost hope.
“It is this loss of hope that can be a curse, because as they say: ‘If you have no hope, you have no reason to live.’” It is in a people steeped in despair, in a world characterized by a “lack of hope”, that His Holiness the Pope proposes a year “To pray, and the Synod urges us to continue walking together. Prayer is not an escape from what we see. It is a way to find solutions to the challenges we face.”
In his post on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, Chamisa also said the economic challenges plaguing the country were a result of the disputed August 2023 elections.
“The consequences of broken politics… In just one month, the economy has recorded the following alarming developments: 1. The budget of a family of five has doubled from about 3 million Zimbabwe dollars in December 2023 to 6.2 million Zimbabwe dollars per person.” January 2024.
“2. The value of the national budget was halved within a month after the official exchange rate fell by more than 100% – leaving the Zimbabwean government unable to make vital payments. 3. Annual inflation rose by about 323 percentage points to 1,347% in the first week From February 2024. All of these are symptoms of rigged elections, contested national processes, and broken policies.
The bishops also expressed concern about the rise of evil society.
“The challenge facing our modern society is that we have become so secular that we envision a world without God. We have placed God on the margins of our world.
“We worry about God’s world and its problems, and look for solutions to it that have nothing to do with God. We now have more faith in the things of God, and we have forgotten the One who gave us those things.” Newsday
