Golden Jubilee For Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference
ordinarily by 60% albeit most of the ministers left the room after mass. The
discussion part needs reformulation for it to be sensitive to the feelings of
ministers who did not want to be humiliated by ordinary MPS outside
parliament. The office is hoping to improve on this with time so that ministers do
not leave the room after mass.
When the idea of meeting Catholic MPs for mass came up again last year, the
number of MPs coming was low, but as we come to the end of the year the
number of MPs who come for mass has increased and even those who are not
catholic come to join in prayer and discussions that come after the mass. What
seems to be the trend in the operation of our parliament is that, MPs would want
to be assisted to fulfil the promises they made during the campaigning period.
Some of the MPs tactfully involve the church in their activities to ensure that the
people do not revolt against them. This seems to be done so that they get
sympathy from the church authorities in a bid to further their interests in order to
be re-elected to office in the next general election. It is sad that the leaders are
mostly engaged in elections and not in developmental activities most of the time
they are in office. A motion to track on the promises made to the electorate was
tabled in Parliament sometime last year. If this bill is passed it will mean that the
promises made to the people will be checked on a quarterly basis to see what will
have been achieved and what will not have been done.
g) Meet your MP program.
This program is assisting ordinary people in the constituencies to meet and talk
to their leaders. The program helps dialogue between political leaders and their
people. This has not been received well by political parties because ordinary
people are beginning to question politicians on the promises that were made
during campaigns and are now impossible to fulfil. During this period of
reporting we have had some MPs who have been called to come and share with
the church leadership on the topic on reconciliation and building of the nation.
MPs are now called upon to visit the local church leadership to hear their views
on what is expected of them. Not all the church leadership have accepted their
role in sharing their ideas with the legislature for some of the church leadership
referred the MPs to the CPLO. This has sent mixed reactions from the legislature
who feel they are being ignored by the church leadership.
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