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Bishop Munyaradzi Pundo (left) stresses a point at prayer session of church leaders against corruption. He is flanked by Father Fraderic Chiromba, Rev Tich Dzinotyiwei, and Rev Dr Roy Musasiwa

The Arena Hildegarde

CALLS to curb the scourge of corruption in all sectors of our lives are firing from all cylinders.The church, which is supposed to be the moral compass of society, is also speaking out, very strongly and from a united front.

Church leaders convened a prayer service and discussion session on February 28 under the theme: “Church leaders against corruption”. The conveners were the Zimbabwe Faith, Ethics and Development (Zifepa). In attendance were representatives from the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Catholics Bishops Conference, Baptist Union of Zimbabwe, Indigenous Pastors Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Affirmative Action Group.

This was an open admission that corruption was not a preserve of the public sector and its various parastatals; the conveners wanted to drive home a point: corruption is also a cancer eating away the church.

This no holds barred discussion set to seek answers and from the highlights of the presentations, there is need for the nation to adopt a no-nonsense approach in order to stamp out the scourge and move forward.

Bishop Noah Pashapa of Life and Liberty Churches International and Zifepa executive chairman said, “The objectives were to sensitise and mobilise the church leaders towards fighting corruption within the church; to share information, education and awareness towards empowering church leaders to more effectively to enlighten their parishioners some of whom are captains of industry and influential politicians on the wrongs of corruption and ways to fight it; to affirm and celebrate President Mugabe’s principled stand against corruption and those media houses and government ministers who have actively and openly used their influence to fight corruption; to pray for those like president Mugabe, ministers Jonathan Moyo and Supa Mandiwanzira and media journalists that have been outspoken against corruption to be protected by God because corruption is often sponsored by mafia style cartels made up of evil members of the rich and ruling classes especially where business, political and demonic interests meet as with Cecil John Rhodes, the British Government and Satanism”.

The main speakers were Father Fraderic Chiromba (Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference); Apostle Alex Chisango (Revival Church Ministries); and Dr Davison Gomo (CEO, AAG). Panelists were Rev Dr Roy Musasiwa (Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe); Bishop Munyaradzi Pundo (Indigenous Pastors Fellowship of Zimbabwe), Father Fraderic Chiromba (ZCBC) and Rev Tich Dzinotyiwei (Baptist Union of Zimbabwe).

Father Chiromba’s presentation premised on the “Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa” highlighted that: “Statistics highlight the very serious problem we have regarding corruption in many areas of Southern Africa. It has been reported that almost half of the citizens in our countries of Southern Africa admit to having paid a bribe, mostly to police officers and government officials. This means that the challenge to work for the eradication of this illness is addressed to all of us. Each must do something within their power to tackle corruption”.

He added, “Corruption hurts the most vulnerable. Corruption harms the whole community. Corruption is theft from the poor. Corruption destroys our trust. The experience of corruption leads us to become cynical about each other, to distrust the very people we regard as our leaders and as honourable people.”

Apostle Chisango said Christians from all denominations should castigate all forms of corruption.
“President Mugabe is a devout Christian and we have a good starting point on the fight against corruption. If the mega salaries many are currently earning are toned down, that money can be used to create millions of jobs for the unemployed.”

He added: “There has been a tendency by the wealthy to manipulate and override political processes and dispossess the poor who do not have power. There are people infiltrating politics to manipulate the legislation to their advantage.”

Dr Gomo maintained that “If one cares to listen to the stories that the public talks about, the only conclusion you arrive at is that there is decay in all our institutions. The big question is, how prepared are we to tackle this problem head on? Is there political and public will to confront this menace and deal with it ruthlessly? If this is left to fester on and deepen its grip on our society leading to its socialisation and institutionalisation, the cost of correcting and repairing the damage is just too ghastly to contemplate.

“It is important that we look at the Christian world view and of course the position of Christians to the question of corruption. Today in Zimbabwe, a lot of churches are led by business people and professionals in Government, parastatals and the private sector. What is even more interesting and must be analysed carefully is the relationship between the corporate leaders who are part of the modern church and in some cases, these individuals on the churches and where they do not own the church, they happen to occupy influential positions in the church.

“Instead of talking about curbing corruption, my view is that the church should be talking about zero tolerance and the complete removal of corruption in our midst. The church’s position must not be one based on isolated attempts at conferencing about this inimical and social evil. Instead, the church must bring out its moral amour and deploy it to leave no space for such practices in their spheres of activity and in society in general,” he said.

“Why for instance should business leaders and professionals who have been implicated in dubious business dealings be allowed to continue in positions of influence in church? Should the church be accepting donations from people whose character is inconsistent with the fundamental moral position of the church? Should the church be exalting materialism and even more controversially, should leaders of the church be living lives that are contrary to the simple lifestyle that Jesus portrayed during his mission on earth?”
Facts argue, but truth remains as is. What has the church done to stamp out corruption?

Dr Gomo called for “minimum rules of reporting and disclosure in order to maintain and safeguard integrity in financial reporting and strategic decision making.”

Dr Musasiwa said the EFZ’s press statement of February 14, “A Call to Moral and Spiritual Accountability” was the guiding principle. He also said there is need for introspection: “Agreed, corruption is a scourge that should be eradicated. I ask what happened to the moral values instilled by the Chimurenga song “Nzira Dzamasoja” sung during the liberation struggle, which made it very clear that we don’t take things from the poor and, we compensate what we would have taken; we pay for everything we have purchased. All these values were articulated in political songs.”

Rev Dzinotyiwei said a system of church governance should be put in place to ensure that church leaders are accountable to their congregation always.

Bishop Pundo argued that the church should follow what the word of God says. “The church is the salt that seasons and preserves Christian and ethical conduct in the church and society at large. When corruption becomes a scourge, the finger should be pointed toward us, the church leadership, that we have failed to preserve moral and ethical conduct. We have failed to season those in the public and private sectors. We should educate each other as church leaders and tell ourselves that we walk in righteously.”

He also touched on a controversial element: the church and politics and said, “The problem is that a lot of church leaders claim to be apolitical, but in our case, we said let’s join hands with indigenous churches because they are not apolitical. Politics is now fraught with corruption because the salt is missing. We realised that even in the Bible the priest, the King and the prophet worked together. So we encourage the church to do likewise.”

Dr Gomo’s concluding remarks are a challenge to all: “Whatever it is we do, it is important to understand and appreciate that corruption is a serious problem affecting our democracy and the economy and engenders grave consequences for the security of the economy, society and persons”.