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Church leaders protest against national pledge

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CHURCH leaders in Harare yesterday led a protest march against Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora, demanding he rescinds his decision to force the recitation of the national pledge in schools.

CHURCH leaders in Harare yesterday led a protest march against Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora, demanding he rescinds his decision to force the recitation of the national pledge in schools.

BY OBEY MANAYITI/XOLISANI NCUBE

Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere
Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere

The church leaders said the pledge was against their Christian beliefs and must be dropped immediately.

The placard-waving church leaders, under the banner of the Prayer Network of Zimbabwe, later handed their petition to the ministry’s acting permanent secretary, Peter Muzawazi.

“Our main issue is that the pledge is against the Constitution, particularly section 60,” PNZ spokesperson, Assan Mtembo said.

“We don’t want our children to recite that pledge. This is like the time of Daniel in the Bible, where people were forced to take contrary acts. We are warning them to stop the pledge.”

Mtembo said they would give the government two weeks to respond, failure to which, they would hold more protests.

This came as Christian Voice International-Zimbabwe, led by Tapfumaneyi Zenda, and Zimbabwe Divine Destiny, led by Ancelimo Magaya, petitioned Parliament to force Dokora to drop the pledge.

Meanwhile, over 100 vendors took to the streets yesterday, demonstrating against Harare City Council’s continued confiscation of their wares.

The vendors accused Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere of sanctioning their harassment by council authorities, as they demanded that the acting mayor, Chris Mbanga, address them.

Addressing the protesters at Town House under heavy police guard, National Vendors’ Union of Zimbabwe leader, Stern Zvorwadza challenged council to stop confiscating street hawkers’ wares, as this was in violation of the Constitution.

“We want council to address and tell us where they are getting the powers to confiscate our wares. This is violation of the Constitution, as stipulated under section 69 that has to do with property rights. They want us to suffer,” he said.