Noko appealed to heads of LWF member churches in the Southern African Development Community area to push the region’s governments “to take the further steps necessary to bring an end to the suffering of the people of
Zimbabwe, which is also the suffering of the whole region”, the Geneva-based
LWF said in a December 16 statement.
SADC is made up of 15, mainly southern African, nations in a grouping that was formed in 1980 as an alliance to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa.
In his letter Noko, who is himself a Zimbabwean, said the region’s governments and leaders should “act in the most responsible — but determined and unwavering — manner to relieve Zimbabweans of the burden they have already carried for far too long”.
Noko said, “It is not acceptable that President Mugabe continues to blame others for Zimbabwe’s plight, while he demonstrates no regard for the agonies of ordinary Zimbabweans. Indeed, he acts against his own people as if they were enemies.
“He has destroyed Zimbabwe’s reputation and relationships internationally and regionally,” asserted Noko. The LWF general secretary called for the grouping’s member churches in the SADC region to send pastoral letters to their parishes and congregations, indicating that Lutheran churches throughout the world do not accept the current situation in Zimbabwe.
“Without even clean water to drink, now hundreds are dying of cholera in an epidemic that is becoming a source of infection for neighboring countries,” Noko said of the deteriorating situation for his fellow Zimbabweans. Noko, an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, reiterated the LWF’s gratitude for the region’s hospitality and generosity towards many desperate people fleeing the political and economic chaos in Zimbabwe.
He said the LWF is also grateful for the efforts of SADC and some individual political leaders in the region to promote a peaceful resolution of the political crisis. These had “so far foundered on the obstacle of Mr. Mugabe’s determination to retain power at all costs.”
