BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
ministries leaving the MDC with ministries whose main tasks are to
restore the economy of Zimbabwe.
This caused a heated and protracted disagreement between the two
parties. The talks to share the ministries collapsed a number of times
with Tsvangirai boycotting some of them. The talks culminated in the
holding of the SADC extraordinary summit on 19 November 2008. The
summit resolved that an inclusive government be formed immediately
thereafter with the two parties co-sharing the much disputed Ministry of
Home Affairs. The MDC, which had hoped that SADC will pressure
Mugabe to cede the Ministry of Home Affairs to it, disagreed with
SADC’s position and refused to join the unity government. Tsvangirai
threatened to withdraw from the talks and he left the country for Bot-
swana where he stayed for some time.
Mugabe made it clear that his party was not going to make any further
compromises as far as the talks were concerned. He threatened to form
a government without Tsvangirai but the threat was less credible. It was
at this time that regional pressure mounted against Tsvangirai to join
the inclusive government. Even Zambia, which has been severely critical
of Mugabe’s sincerity in the power sharing deal, had its biggest daily
newspaper (The Post) on 2 December 2008 “warning” Tsvangirai that
should he continue to refrain from joining the unity government, “the
tide of African public opinion may soon shift against him, and with it a
decline in his political fortunes”. Talks resumed again in Zimbabwe and
they collapsed. In January 2009, talks were held in South Africa and the
parties finally agreed to form an inclusive government in February 2009.
The biblical basis of the church’s Vision for Zimbabwe:
conclusion and recommendations
The church is of the view that there are a number of restorative steps
which need to be taken in order to reconstruct the nation. In its massage
of hope to the nation, the Pastoral Letter by the Zimbabwe Catholic
Bishop’s Conference maintained that God hears the cry of the op-
pressed. This argument is premised on a number of Biblical verses
including Deut 26:5b-8 which reads:
My father was a homeless Aramaean. He went down to Egypt to find refuge
there, a few in numbers, but there he became a nation, great, mighty and
strong. The Egyptians ill-treated us; they gave us no peace and inflicted
harsh slavery on us. But we called on the Lord, the God of our fathers. The
Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression, and