Church Leaders to Reassess Involvement in Party Talks

ZIMBABWE'S church leaders yesterday showed signs of fatigue and disillusionment in their efforts to coax the ruling ZANU PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parties into dialogue, saying they were going to reassess their involvement in the search for a negotiated solution to the country's crisis.

A spokesman for the leaders of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC), Trevor Manhanga, said the clergymen would not impose their ideas or themselves on the country's two biggest political parties.

Manhanga was responding to questions about what the church leaders would do given ZANU PF's apparent unwillingness to accept them as mediators.

Manhanga said: "We have not heard anything from ZANU PF in terms of their dismissal of our initiative.

We are going to continue to try our efforts to bring the two to the negotiating table but definitely, we will not be forcing ourselves on them. We cannot force ourselves on anybody."

ZANU PF, which still has not submitted its position paper on dialogue to the three-man church team, has questioned the church's impartiality as mediators.

ZANU PF chairman John Nkomo yesterday refused to say when his party would submit its position paper to the church leaders. He only said: "Ask Manhanga and his team that question. I will not answer that."

Manhanga and his ZCC and ZCBC colleagues Sebastian Bakare and Patrick Mutume respectively, met ZANU PF and state President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai last month in separate meetings in a bid to revive dialogue between the government and the opposition.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai said they were committed to resumption of dialogue but several weeks later there is hardly any progress towards substantive talks because ZANU PF has not submitted in writing its position paper. The MDC submitted its position several weeks ago.

Manhanga said: "Our effort was to bring the two parties together and that is still our position. As church leaders we are going to sit down and come up with a position. If we are being rejected, then we will have to sit down and reassess our personal involvement in this initiative.

Meanwhile, Manhanga and Mutume on Wednesday professed ignorance about an advertisement which was flighted in the government-owned newspaper, The Herald, disputing a story carried by The Daily News last week saying Zanu PF had failed to attend a scheduled meeting with the church leaders last Monday.

"I was away and I was not aware of the advert. You are telling me about it for the first time. We will meet as a team to discuss it," said Manhanga.

Mutume said: "I only read about the advert after your enquiry about it. I was unaware of it. I will ask my colleagues."

In the story the Daily News quoted Bakare saying that a meeting that was scheduled between ZANU PF leaders had failed to take place after the ruling party officials did not turn up. Bakare was not available for comment yesterday.