The leader of the Remnant Church in Zimbabwe, Pastor Patrick Mugadza, has launched a “Mugabe Must Fall” campaign aimed at forcing President Robert Mugabe to step down.
The campaign was launched on Friday 1 July at Africa Unity Square in Harare. It involves 40 days of prayer and fasting as the pastor demands that Mugabe leave office over the Government’s failed economic policies.
In an interview on Saturday Mugadza said the campaign kicked off with four other people joining him. “People are hesitant to join the campaign,” Pastor Mugadza said. “And the police are monitoring us closely.”
However, Pastor Mugadza invited other clergymen and activists to join the campaign. The Remnant Church embraces Seventh-Day Adventist theology.
Mugadza said he was not afraid of arrest and detention by the Mugabe regime, which in the past has come down heavily on dissenting voices. “I am not afraid of anything,” he said defiantly. “I am a pastor who walks with Christ.” Pastor Mugadza, 45 and a father of two, said he had faith nothing would harm him. “As a man of faith I am not afraid and each day we hold prayers from 5 pm to 6 pm,” he said.
The campaign came as Zimbabwe is going through one of its worst economic crises as a result of the president’s 36 years of misrule. Mugabe, who turned 92 in February this year, has been the country’s sole leader since independence in 1980.
In June the Government failed to pay civil servants on time. Banks have run out of cash forcing the authorities to introduce bond notes which are expected to go into circulation in October. Moreover, the country is in the throes of a devastating drought that has left nearly 5 million people in need.
Pastor Mugadza said Mr Mugabe did not know how to get the country out of the current situation. “He is afraid that his future and that of his family is not secure if he is out of power,” Mugadza said. He’s also calling for a referendum to see if people want Mugabe to lead the country until the next elections, due in 2018. “If people vote that they no longer want him we should have an interim government until the next elections,” he said.
Pastor Mugadza said his Church stands for justice and has branches in Kariba and Chegutu. “We are fighting and speaking against the injustice going on,” he said.
In December last year, Mugadza was arrested in Victoria Falls after staging a solo demonstration against Zimbabwe’s leader, who was in the resort town for the annual conference of his party, Zanu PF. However, the secretary general for the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Fr Frederick Chiromba, said there was a need for a unified approach to challenges facing the country. “There is a need for the participation of everybody. We need an inclusive approach and to agree on the way forward,” Fr Chiromba said. “And prayers will help”.
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