Zimbabwe church leaders call for suspension of elections for seven years

Zimbabwe’s church leaders have called for the suspension of elections for seven years to allow for the establishment of an emergency recovery mechanism to address the dire national situation, especially for the most vulnerable communities.

The seven year period- which they called Sabbath- would also enable the country to rebuild trust and confidence by healing all the hurts of the past and to develop a shared national reform agenda to deepen democracy as well as to establish a shared and inclusive national economic vision.

The decision was reached by leaders of church organisations who fall under the Zimbabwe Heads of Church Denominations when they met in Harare yesterday.

ZHOCD is made up of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference and the Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe.

The leaders did not specify the structure that would be running the country during the Sabbath but suggested that the country should hold a referendum to decide if the people want the Sabbath.

They also said the Sabbath should lead to the jubilee which will be in 2029.

This morning, Movement for Democratic Change leader Nelson Chamisa promised dramatic and supersonic change for Zimbabwe that will shock the whole world as economists will not be able to explain the boom.

“WE THE PEOPLE ..Beyond this doom, the rise of Zim shall be a surprise to all & the breaking news to the whole world. The changes will be dramatic & transformation supersonic. New minerals shall be discovered. Economists will not be able to explain the boom,” he tweeted.

Below is the full statement by church leaders:

We, the leaders of the ZHOCD made up of EFZ, UDACIZA, ZCBC and ZCC, met at the Africa Synod House on the 7th of October 2019 to consider the currently unfolding national crisis in its totality and to propose what we believe is a comprehensive but sustainable solution to it.

We have prayerfully come to the conclusion that in light of the current political paralysis, deepening mistrust and the dehumanizing economic decline, the nation will need to take a bold decision to address the root causes of our national challenges that have a very long history and will not be fully resolved by one entity.

In this light, we are calling the nation to SABBATH on all political contestation for a period of seven years to allow for the rebuilding of trust and confidence, reset our politics and chart a shared way forward towards a comprehensive economic recovery path in a non-competitive political environment.

This position builds on the founding vision of the 2006 church discussion document, the Zimbabwe We Want. The position also builds on the proposal from the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations Episcopal Conference at the Large City Hall, Bulawayo of 08-09 May 2019.

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