Their concerns came in the wake of a glowing synopsis of the political situation in the Sadc region by the Sadc Ministerial Committee of the Organ (MCO) on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, which met last week in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss regional peace, security, stability, integration and development.

It has been the week in which a video has gone viral in which a Zanu PF supporter says Citizens Coalition for Change leader Nelson Chamisa must be killed; and in which yet another party mandarin quips that Chamisa’s children too must be eliminated.

Increasing human rights abuses, political violence, runaway inflation, protracted and yet to be concluded wage negotiations between the government and its employees as well as a free-falling local currency are some of the reasons behind the turmoil.

Since 1977, the international organisations has made major investments in reducing poverty, increasing food security, improving nutrition and strengthening rural people’s resilience by providing more than US$23,2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to fund programmes and projects in developing countries.

Zimbabwe’s past elections have often been marred by violence. In August 2018, six civilians were gunned down by soldiers in post-electoral violence.

Zanu PF political commissar Mike Bimha, who attended the gathering, said: “Churches have a big role to play in the elections.  The problem is we have people who always bring in chaos going into the elections.”

“If you want to say Zec has rigged elections or that something has not been done correctly, then we need substantive evidence. There is a provision of the Electoral Court in the Electoral Act where you should take all these matters.

He said the reasons why the Zimbabwean government failed to stand up against the murder of Nyathi was because it was also guilty of similar crimes, such as the February 27 brutal killing of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) supporter Mboneni Ncube in Kwekwe.