By Ferne Burkhardt
Mennonite World Conference

		Zimbabwe ‘full of hope for change’ By Celeste Kennel-Shank Mennonite Weekly Review Bruce Campbell-Janz, Mennonite Central Committee Africa co-director, is hoping for peace in Zimbabwe as voters continue to wait for delayed results from a March 29 presidential election. Campbell-Janz was in Zimbabwe March 23-28 as people prepared to go to the polls, many hoping to oust President Robert Mugabe. Under Mugabe’s presidency, Zimbabwe’s economy has crashed, with hyperinflation and food shortages plaguing the population. “The people we talked to were full of hope for change,” he said. The presidential results have been delayed, though parliamentary results were released, with a majority of seats going to the Movement for Democratic Change opposition party. “The result is not what the powers-that-be wanted to have happen,” Campbell-Janz said. He is thankful that there was not a repeat of the violence leading up to the election and at the polls as seen in the 2002 presidential election. Campbell-Janz also takes hope in the involvement of faith communities. “It is encouraging to see people of faith engaging with trying to work for a positive electoral process and a more peaceful and just Zimbabwe,” he said. The Brethren in Christ Church, the Mennonite World Conference member church in Zimbabwe, has been working ecumenically in training observers and educating people about voting rights, Campbell-Janz said. They have worked with an evangelical fellowship of church-es as well as MCC-partner Habbakuk Trust, a Christian advocacy organization. MCC and MWC are cooperating as they respond to the situation in Zimbabwe, Campbell-Janz said. News updates on the Zimbabwe election are available on the BCC Web site. — Editors Related articles MCC partner monitored Zimbabwe voting Zimbabweans awaited official results of national elections, according to Dumisani O. Nkomo, the chief executive officer of a Mennonite Central Committee partner organization monitoring the voting process. »» READ Prayers uphold Zimbabwe during elections A group of Anabaptists in Illinois calls for prayer and fasting and will gather at 10 a.m. March 29 at Christ Community Mennonite Church in Schaumburg, Ill., as polls close in Zimbabwe. »» READ

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabweans wait. They wait in food lines, for petrol and to get cash. And they wait to learn the results of elections in their country. More than a week after the March 29 vote, official results still were not announced.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai declared victory, and his Movement for Democratic Change party petitioned to make the Zimbabwe Elections Commission release the results. President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party said it won enough votes to require a runoff election.

“It is amazing that ZANU-PF is talking of a recount as well as a runoff of the election even before the election results have been announced,” said Danisa Ndlovu, Mennonite World Conference president-elect and bishop of Zimbabwe’s 33,000-member Brethren in Christ Church. “This is indeed troubling. We hope our people will continue to be patient in the circumstances.”

Ndlovu said the delay in announcing results was creating anxiety and that a declaration of a win by Mugabe had “the greater potential for violence.”

“The BICC [Brethren in Christ Church] has been praying for peace to prevail,” Ndlovu said. “We see the calmness which prevailed during the voting exercise as an answer to the prayers of the church in Zimbabwe and beyond.”

Kenya’s recent post-election violence was very much on the minds of Zimbabweans, said Ndlovu, but tribal outrage is unlikely in Zimbabwe.

Ndlovu said the church is praying that the ruling party, if it ultimately loses the election, will “accept the outcome . . . and contribute to the good of the future of our nation as a positive and credible opposition.”

He hopes that if Tsvangirai wins, he will create a culture of tolerance, support development programs and be a leader who will unite the nation.

“As a denomination, we will want to position ourselves so that we are able to carry out some of our programs that we have been unable to do due to the economic hardships we are currently experiencing,” Ndlovu said.

MWC sent four election observers at the invitation of the BICC to monitor all stages of the election process, said Pascal Kulungu of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Congo. However, Zimbabwe’s minister of justice denied accreditation for Kulungu and the other MWC observers, who came from South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. According to Kulungu, some faith-based observers were accredited. Others were not.

“The [Mugabe] government is generally keen at accrediting those groups that they believe are friendly to them,” Ndlovu said. “The church is often viewed with suspicion.”

He added that political leaders also know that the church represents a significant constituency that can not easily be ignored.

Without accreditation, the observers could not enter polling stations, but they did visit polls in Harare and several rural areas. They talked with people going in and out of the polling stations and to police who were on hand to maintain order.

Kulungu felt the MWC observers’ quiet presence made a positive difference in the election process.

The BICC saw the response of MWC to its invitation to send observers as “another practical effort by the worldwide family of faith to walk alongside their brothers and sisters at a very crucial time of seeking to discern God’s will.”

There were also BICC Zimbabwe election observers whose observations will be reflected in statements issued by observers from Christian churches.

A change of government should give Zimbabweans new hope and a better economic situation, Ndlovu said, but it will take time.

“We call upon the church around the world to be in prayer for Zimbabwe at this important time,” he said.