Catholic Diocese of Chinhoyi cleric, Bishop Raymond Mpandasekwa, has criticised the government over several issues including its “terrible proposition to turn our civilian doctors into soldiers” saying the state will be left without doctors.
The clergyman has in previous years clashed with the government over his hard stance against alleged misrule which he said was characterised by violence, injustice, corruption, and bloodshed.
In an audio recording of his recent Sunday sermon posted on Facebook, Mpandasekwa laments the wanton killing of members of the opposition and attempts to militarise the medical profession. Mpandasekwa said:
They bring bloodshed, they kill, instead of freedom they bring imprisonment to those who oppose them, those who think differently, to those who disagree with their policies.
The only thing they know is violence. These people bring bloodshed, that lacking in integrity, they are dishonest.
All they bring is nothing but distress … what greater distress was brought upon us when the plight of our doctors was, a few days ago, responded to by a terrible proposition to turn our civilian doctors into soldiers, who will from then on go by instruction.”
Indeed, the freedom party refuses to give freedom of choice by refusing to listen to the cries of the distressed doctors.
Instead, they propose more distress. We are now heading to become a State with no doctors as this unconstitutional proposition is a destruction of the medical practice as we know it.
Through our policies, our situation will not only get worse, the poor are always the victims.
When bishops question the capacity and emotional stability of the government, we are accused of insulting the Office of the President.
The governed are being insulted everyday by the same people, through their careless utterances and disregard for the Constitution.
Living for justice is dangerous, for we live in a country that refuses to deliver justice. Our children are not going to school, except a few lucky ones.
He added that the sick were not being treated in hospitals due to the government’s bad policies.
Mpandasekwa added that the ruling ZANU PF instils fear in the public through state institutions such as the police, the army and the judiciary.