Kadoma Ecumenical Election Covenant from Zimbabwe Council of Churches

The Christian Community and citizens of goodwill in Kadoma, led by Global Ministries partner, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, guided by the word of God and inspired by the Holy Spirit firmly believe in the possibility of a peaceful, free and fair election in 2018. For with God all things are possible. We are emboldened by the word of God in our faith for these elections: ‘if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17 verse 19-21)” In light of this, we prayerfully bring forward this Ecumenical Election Covenant to publicly demonstrate our commitment to contribute towards a peaceful, free and fair election.

To Political Parties:

• We ask you to neither instigate nor perpetrate political violence. We encourage you to maintain a zero tolerance policy against politically motivated violence.
• We expect you to put in place concrete and verifiable plans, policies and disciplinary processes to address incidences of politically motivated violence.
• We also remind you that we do not want you to use our young people to fight your political battles. Please allow the youth to participate peacefully and in a dignified manner as the major stakeholder in the country’s future and not as cheerleaders and perpetrators of violence.
• We urge you to facilitate gender parity in the selection of candidates, to value women as equal candidates to men and to remove the numerous boundaries to women’s free and informed participation in internal democratic processes.

To aspiring candidates:

• We would like to see workable plans to facilitate improved access to quality, safe and drinkable water by all the residents of Kadoma rich or poor.
• We value the construction of public toilets at our communal dwelling places, informal places of work and markets as an effort towards reducing water-borne diseases and remove the indignity of hardworking men and women resorting to open defecation.
• We also value clear plans for the construction of new roads and the refurbishment of old existing roads; in particular, the much needed tributary road linking Kadoma with the Harare-Bulawayo highway.
• We would greatly appreciate the prioritisation in your manifestos and campaign pledges of the construction of tertiary institutions in Kadoma, either in the form of a University or a polytechnic so as to empower youth in this town with the tools to spearhead economy recovery in Kadoma.
• We further recommend the prioritisation, maintenance and construction of dilapidated social amenities and recreational facilities to keep the youths active and occupied so as to reduce idleness and the prevalence of drug abuse,
• We call for the review of outstanding electricity and water debts owed to the city council because in many instances these bills were levied for services not delivered by the town council. Ultimately, we demand the cancellation of these debts in instances where the town council never provided any service to warrant any payment from Kadoma residents.

To sitting Parliamentarians:

• We ask that you do more to align all laws with the constitution. Of importance to us is electoral reform, devolution of power and authority to local governments and the reform of repressive laws like POSA and AIPPA.

To Traditional leaders:

• We expect you to be non-partisan and to refuse to be used by political parties to campaign or mobilize people to support any political party at the expense of others.
• We strongly believe that our Traditional leaders should be exemplary, leading the way in facilitating national peace, national unity, as well as robust dialogue and engagement.
• We ask our Traditional Leaders not to discriminate against anyone based on gender, culture, tribe, language, political affiliation or creed when distributing public resources.

To our Security services:

• We plead with members of our security forces to remain professional and non-partisan in dispensing their duties,
• No polling station should be located within a ZNA, ZRP or ZPS camp; this implies that all members of ZNA, ZRP, and ZPS should vote outside their workplaces. In addition, members of the ZNA, ZRP and ZPS must vote freely, without any threats of being punished or dismissed from work if they don’t vote for a particular party.

To fellow Christians:

• We invite you all to join the church in praying for peaceful elections.

‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever Amen’. Matthew 6 v 9-13