About 300 worshippers, some of them carrying giant placards, gathered during
the time of Sunday services on 16 November in a parking lot adjacent to the
venue of failed talks to end tensions between long-ruling Robert Mugabe and
his political rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
“People are dying because our hospitals, social and physical infrastructure
are collapsing,” said Elliot Mandaza, a spokesperson for the church groups
told journalists.
“We are monitoring the situation. If there is progress we will gather again
to give thanks. If there is no progress we will gather and continue to pray
and petition political our leaders,” Mandaza said.
One of the placards urging an end to the stalemate in talks between the
country’s three main political parties said, “Break The Impasse”. Another
lamenting the collapsed health sector, read, “We ask to Live Not Die” while
another, advocating unity, stated, “One Nation Under God.” Other placards
demanded restoration of the inflation-ravaged economy and Zimbabweans’
dignity.
The prayers followed the failure of leaders from the 12 nations making up
the Southern African Development Community to agree at a 10 November meeting
on a way of overcoming an impasse in implementing a power-sharing agreement
for Zimbabwe, brokered in September by the then South African president
Thabo Mbeki.
“There are bones everywhere,” said Pastor Never Muparutsa, leading the
Christians from various denominations through a prayer for the restoration
of the country’s once-vibrant economy. All major state hospitals have been
shut down for lack of staff while pharmacies are empty.
“There are bones in our economy. There are bones in our health services
sector,” said Muparutsa.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party has said it will not join
the proposed government with Mugabe and Mutambara, the leader of an MDC
faction. It is insisting first on a constitutional amendment to provide for
the newly-created post of prime minister to be assumed by Tsvangirai.
Coordinator of the prayer vigil Bishop Tudor Bismark of the New Life
Covenant Church said, “We are praying for restoration of our economy and our
dignity and we are appealing to God to intervene in our situation and
restore Zimbabwe to its former status.”
