Chamburuka, A Theological reflection on Romans 13:1-7 in ...ture, hate speech, abductions, rape, murder, vote buying and rigging.
Paul’s message in Rom 13:1-7 becomes controversial especially the no-
tion that governments or state leaders are ordained by God when they
assume office via undemocratic means. We are aware that the Roman
government was not democratic elected but times have drastically
changed such that democratic principles must be used as bench marks
to ascertain whether a government is legitimate or illegitimate. We can-
not have a blind eye on tyranny simply because the Roman empire dur-
ing Paul’s era was such, that is a fallacy of irrelevancy and pardoning of
evil as well as blind nationalism, and therefore ungodly. It is sad to learn
that many innocent people were killed, raped, lost their relatives and
valuable goods, some suffered permanent injuries and others were dis-
placed and left homeless in the name of politics especial before, during
and after the 29 March harmonised elections and 27 June 2008 presiden-
tial runoff elections. (The Zimbabwean Newspaper 24-30 August,
2008:1). Of interest is how the 29 March 2008 harmonised elections
were declared not free and fair by most national and international bodies
that were monitoring the pre-election and post-election periods. These
were preceded by the 27 June 2008 presidential runoff election which
was a one man band, in which Robert Mugabe was the only candidate
after his rival Morgan Tsvangirayi had withdrawn citing escalating po-
litical violence upon his supporters. Interestingly, Mugabe and the elec-
toral commission went on with the election that was declared a sham by
the international community. Mugabe was declared the winner in an
uncontested election and the state media claimed that he had won the
election resoundingly. In such a scenario Rom 13:1-7 becomes an open
cheque which is subject to abuse. It does not need a rocket scientist to
judge that in this 21st century era to discern that leaders who get into
office through such means should be declared illegitimate and must not
be condoned.
The condemnation of the 27 June presidential runoff by the interna-
tional community (including Southern African Development Commu-
nity, African Union and Pan African observer missions) left Mugabe
with no option but to seek a political settlement with the opposition.
This then culminated into political dialogue between ZANU PF and the
two MDC factions led by Morgan Tsvangirayi and Arthur Mutambara
respectively mediated by the then South African president Thabo Mbeki.
The talks precipitated into the historic signing of the Global Political