Why Zimbabwe's church councils are silent on constitutional amendments

Lawmaking belongs to Parliament, not to the pulpit.

A CONSCIENCE that wakes only when it is politically convenient is not a conscience. It is a calculation.

Over the past three months, the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD), the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) have produced an escalating series of statements opposing the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment No. 3) Bill, 2026.

They invoke the liberation struggle, the supremacy of God and the sanctity of the 2013 “covenant”. They ask Parliament to withdraw the Bill or put it to a referendum. They declare, clause by clause, that they “oppose”.

It would be a formidable performance if these same bodies had not been entirely silent when the Constitution was amended in ways that were, by any honest measure, more consequential to the very principles they now invoke. The Constitution was adopted in 2013 and has since been amended twice.