By Patrick Guramatunhu- It is often said the distinction between madness and genius is a fine line, the same cannot be said about the yawning chasm that separate piety humility and blasphemy. Emmerson Mnangagwa has crossed that chasm!

“Dear God, Jehovah and the only true God, Father of our saviour Jesus Christ. I humble myself before you, together with the people of Zimbabwe over whom You made me a servant leader!” proclaimed Mnangagwa in his prayer yesterday.

Everyone with any democratic credentials worth a spit condemned Zimbabwe’s July 2018 elections as a farce.

“The electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability,” stated the EU Zimbabwe 2018 Election Mission final report.

“As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards!”

There are many things we can argue about and agree to differ, if we cannot agree. But there are others which are establish historic facts that must be respected and accept as such, that the July 2018 elections were not free, fair and credible is one of these historic facts.

ZEC failed to produce something as basic for elections as a verified voters’ roll, for Pete’s sake!

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because Zimbabweans, from all walks of life, notably academics and church leaders, have all shied away from holding Zanu PF and other political leaders to democratic account. Zanu PF leaders have been allowed to ride roughshod over the people, denying them their freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life. This must stop!

The people of Zimbabwe must learn the importance of speaking the truth to power – a recurring theme in the Christian Bible. A theme our church leaders have seemingly forgotten!

To therefore evoke the name of God and proclaim that God Himself made him (Mnangagwa) “a servant leader” over the nation is blasphemy because it implies God was involved in the rigged July 2018 elections.

Last week, Mnangagwa proclaim 15 June 2020 a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. He invited several church leaders to join him in the praying and fasting at State House.

Several high profile leaders attended the State House gathering including Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), the Indigenous Zimbabwe Inter-denominational Council of Churches, as well as the Zimbabwe Elders Forum.

By participating in July 2018 elections Nelson Chamisa and his MDC friends and the coterie of other opposition politicians gave some modicum of credibility to the flawed and illegal election process. And, by extension gave some modicum of legitimacy to this Zanu PF regime.

The country’s church leaders have in turn given the regime their modicum of legitimacy by attending activities hosted by Mnangagwa as the State President. In his public prayer yesterday, Mnangagwa has gone one step further and proclaimed himself chosen by God to leader. The many church leaders gathered at State House were first-hand eye-witnesses to the profanity. Those church leaders who were not at State House have, nonetheless, since seen the video recording of the prayer with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.

So, what are our church leaders now going to do about this illegitimate and blasphemous Zanu PF regime?

Silence, it must be said, is consent – a maxim of common law!