CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) The power-sharing deal signed by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is a "most welcome development", a Church official said. The deal, in which Mugabe and the opposition will wield equal power in a unity government aimed at ending the southern African country’s political and economic crisis, "provides a structure for service delivery that we desperately need," said Fr Frederick Chiromba, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, in a Sept. 16 telephone interview with Catholic News Service from the capital, Harare.
"It also puts a structure in place to begin the constitution-making process that the bishops have called for," said Father Chiromba, who watched the Sept. 15 signing of the agreement at Harare’s convention center.
"It is a great relief that the country’s decline can begin to be harnessed. I hope things stabilize and the country can begin to rise again," Fr Chiromba told CNS.
Talks between Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change have been taking place since March 2007.
"The all-inclusive government that has been established is based on a recognition of the results of the March 29 (2008) elections, which is important," Fr Chiromba said. Tsvangirai, who won the first round of the presidential poll, boycotted the June 27 runoff, citing violence against his supporters.
Human rights groups said opposition supporters have been the targets of brutal state-sponsored violence since March, leaving more than 80 dead and 200,000 displaced.
Mugabe, 84, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years, was sworn in for a sixth term after the runoff in which he was the only candidate.
Under the new deal, Mugabe remains president and keeps control over the military, while Tsvangirai is prime minister and will control a council of ministers that will advise on policy and monitor the Cabinet.
In a Sept. 15 statement issued by the English and Welsh bishops’ Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Father Chiromba said that "behind the signatures on that piece of paper are huge challenges ahead."
Getting food to people is one of Zimbabwe’s immediate challenges, Fr Chiromba said in the statement, noting that "there is a great need to provide basic food aid as people are coping with a bad harvest" in the midst of economic collapse.
Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate, with chronic shortages of foreign currency, food and jobs.
The priest said the country’s hospitals have no medicines and "doctors do not even have aspirins to give out."
Noting that "development doesn’t work unless it goes hand in hand with healing and reconciliation for those people who have been traumatized by the violence," Fr Chiromba said that the church will continue to prioritize the needs of ordinary citizens.
