ZANU PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa has claimed that the Pastoral Letter issued by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) on 14 August was written by MDC Alliance leaders Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti.
Addressing journalists at the party’s headquarters in Harare on Tuesday, Chinamasa said the hard-hitting letter released by Catholic Bishops could only have been written by Chamisa and Biti. Said Chinamasa:
We dismiss these allegations with the contempt they deserve, not only as baseless but pandering to the demands of the MDCs.
The language was clearly tilted. In fact, you would say that the language seemed to have been written by Chamisa or Biti, most likely Biti.
We are saying to the bishops, before you speak, please ask for dialogue with our President. We are open to any dialogue on any issue that affects Zimbabweans, that affects their lives.
We will not allow any tendencies that precipitate us to violent situations or which give encouragement to noises that want to precipitate violent outcomes for our country.
In their pastoral letter, the Catholic bishops called on the government to order over human rights violations and corruption.
The government immediately responded by calling the bishops “genocidal”, “evil-minded” and a “self-righteous Ndebele minority”.
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Minister Chamisa is at pains to state that the catholic bishops breached the wall between politics and religion. (In a similar vein,The President suggested they start a politival party.) Politics influences the lives of the people. Religion also influences the lives of the people and has the greater prioroty. Therefore, there is an overlap between reliogion and politics and when the latter trangresses the laws of God, demeans the quality of life of the people, the Church has a duty to speak out. As a Catholic Minister Chinamasa ought to know this. I have lost count of the solidarity statements. The government is out on a limb!