Select church leaders give President Mugabe Ultimatum to address problems facing the nation

A GROUP of local church based organisations have penned a damning letter to President Robert Mugabe urging the under fire leader to repent and to further allow Zimbabwe’s restoration back to economic prosperity and healing.

The defiant organisations further gave the 92 year-old leader up to September 28 to address their demands short of which they would institute measures to impeach him.

The groups include Bishop Ancelimo Magaya’s Zimbabwe Divine Destiny, Reverend Useni Sibanda’s Zimbabwe Christian Alliance and Kudakwashe Makuwe’s Prayer Network of Zimbabwe Coordinator.

Also part of the communiqué are Tedious Munemo’s Zimbabwe Pastors’ Fellowship and Reverend Clement Zenda’s Christian Voice International Zimbabwe.

The organisations said they were “noting the deteriorating political situation in the country, worried about continued curtailing of people’s freedoms by your government and concerned about the socio-economic crisis that has reached levels that threaten survival of the helpless masses and ultimately peace of the nation”.

The group said they were further “disturbed by the increasingly restive populace and the brutal show of force by state machinery”.

Against that background, the church groups called on “you Mr President to humbly admit before God and the Zimbabwean populace that the country is in a dire situation that requires an extraordinary collective response to rescue it from a total collapse that may trigger a regrettable spontaneous civil unrest”.

The groups urged Mugabe to allow national dialogue and stop unleashing terror on citizens for expressing genuine grievances.

“If you fail to address these issues by September 28, we will be forced to exercise our democratic right to petition Parliament to impeach you,” said the church organisations.

“We also want to appeal to your conscience to repent before God for having presided over massacres in Matebeleland during mid-1980s, maiming, torture, abductions and killings that have become a part of your government.

“On the basis of the prophetic mandate endued on the church, we warn that God’s judgement is imminent if you will not repent.

“Also, be reminded of the word of God which says that he will punish the children because of the sins of their fathers down to the third and fourth generations.

“We pray that your children will come to the knowledge of the Lord so that they escape from the curse associated with your sins.”

It was not clear however if the letter was delivered to the Zimbabwean leader who has in the past dismissed demands by vocal churches as an attempt to dabble in national politics.

President Mugabe, who has also dismissed the opposition’s demands for the formation of a caretaker administration – the National Transitional Authority – has come under increased pressure from the church to abandon his dictatorial leadership.

In remarks which were directed at firebrand Baptist pastor Evan Mawarire few weeks ago, President Mugabe said the now exiled rights campaigner was not a genuine man of God adding that he belonged to a group of church leaders who spelled the word God in the reverse.

Mugabe has maintained the country’s economic tailspin was a result of western imposed sanctions which he maintains were both illegal and an attempt to force his ouster.

Source-New Zimbabwe