Time to speak out

Two weeks ago we identified, not for the first time, Zimbabwe’s Muga-be regime as displaying traits of fascism.

It is noteworthy that Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo in his Denis Hurley Lecture in Durban, used identical terminology in describing the government of his country.

In his lecture, Archbishop Ncube provided an overview of the genesis of the rise of fascism in Zimbabwe. The country, once the beneficiary of a booming economy (by African standards), now is in a deep crisis.

Political factors, such as civic instability and especially the seizure of farms, were inevitably going to intensify Zimbabwe’s economic distress. These factors have been exacerbated by the alarming drought in southern Africa, to the point of widespread famine.

It cannot be disputed that the policy of forcible land redistribution over the past two years has significantly aggravated the country’s food shortages. Unconscionably, the Zanu-PF government now seems to use hunger as a political weapon, as Archbishop Ncube points out.

It is a cruel irony that when earlier this month Zimbabwe pleaded for aid from South Africa, the major concession involved a termination of further farm invasions (as useful an idea as offering to stop flogging a dead horse). Implausibly, the South African government seems to regard such a cynical proposition as a political victory.

However, the land grabs represent only one depressing chapter in Zimbabwe’s most recent history. Robert Mugabe is an equal-opportunity tyrant. As much as the white farmers who have lost their property are his victims, so are the many, mostly black Zimbabweans who oppose the Zanu-PF regime.

Surely South Africa, an arena of a celebrated struggle for democracy, must make aid to Zimbabwe contingent on the restoration of human rights and constitutional democracy.

In his address, Archbishop Ncube appealed to South Africans “to lobby wherever possible to apply pressure on Mugabe and his followers to change”.

It is to be hoped that the bishops of Southern African will have noted Archbishop Ncube’s plea.

Ecclesial protocol prevents the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference from making statements about the internal affairs of a foreign state, unless asked to do so by that country’s episcopal conference. Zimbabwe’s bishops have made no such request, in itself an indicator of deplorable division within the Church there.

Surely the evident malfeasance in Zimbabwe justifies the courageous exercise of a Christian conscience over institutional etiquette.

At the very least, there is little reason why the SACBC should not be at liberty to challenge the foreign policies of its own government.

Some bishops have in their individual capacity already spoken out against the injustices in Zimbabwe, among them Bishop Kevin Dowling, who did so with much courage in Bulawayo earlier this year.

As Christians we are called to stand with the oppressed and the hungry. The Church in South Africa must be united in its solidarity with the victims of Mugabe’s unjust regime. Can the SACBC afford to remain silent?