The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE church has called for continued unity in the country saying it is important to recognize unity in diversity and pursue peaceful means of conflict resolution.
In his Unity Day message, Reverend Kenneth Mtata the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches said as Zimbabwe commemorates 33 years since the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987, it was important to take stock of the significance of unity and appreciation of diversity in national development.
“It is a good day to reflect on the significane of unity for the development and advancemnet of the nation from the perspective of faith because we are Christians, also because it is generally accepted that some level of unity or convergence among key stakeholders in society create the necessary condition for the development of a country, for this reason, we must celebrate the efforts of the past generations,” he said.
He also said the country must work on improving unity amongst the people.
” We must be quick to recognise that we are operating at the lowest deficiency of unity that is required to push this nation to the next level. This does not require foreign investment but investment in humility, desire to reach out. This is an ingredient that is missing in efforts towards economic transformation, ” he added.
He said from the perspective of the church, efforts have been advanced that the nation needs to build a certain level of consensus of unity with stakeholders.
“The approach of the church has been to recognise unity itself. Unity has certain characteristics especially if it is unity that is to advance progress it must be unity based on the recognition of differences, not being a threat to development especially if differences are allowed to co-exist in such an environment.
“For this reason institutions like the media play a very important role in allowing the co-existance of different ideas and perspectives to interact in the public space. The public space must be a space where ideas are allowed to interact and advanced and for that to happen the public space must be a safe place where people are able to present their views without fear that differences will be punished,” added Rev Mtata.
He said the church believes that for such unity to occur it must be something that is worked on with structures and processes that must be created for meaningful engagement and dialogue.
He said dialogue was not a sign of weakness but recognition that reaching out to the other with different ideas was better than individual views and for this reason the church has been advancing these processes for comprehensive national dialogue.
“The dialogues is meant to ensure that the lower level people discover the value of non violent ways of resolving disagreements or misunderstandings, at higher level and for this reason dialogue is a key factor and catalyst for the strengthening of national unity. In this regard the church continues to push for unity in diversity and hence continues to push the agenda that diversity is not a threat but a necessary characteristic for unity,” he added.
It is important however to point out that to foster unity and engagement at national level, the Government constituted the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission which has been on the forefront in spearheading peace building initiatives in the country.
They have been working on finding closure in the Gukurahundi historical epoch and in addressing human rights abuses in the country. @NyembeziMu
