Delayed Bar Exams Leave Applicants Without Health Insurance

In the early days of the global pandemic, delaying the bar exam was an obvious step. One that a lot of states refused to take with dangerous consequences, but an obvious step nonetheless. The country was in crisis mode and examinees needed to know that whatever happened, a July bar exam wasn’t something they needed to worry about.

But as we learned more about the nature of the pandemic it became clear that a modest delay wasn’t going to cut it. Some states tried to run the test online and only ended up with further delays. As state bar examiners scramble mostly aimlessly to try and get anything together that resembles the test they’ve staked their jobs upon, examinees are dealing with the fallout of these slapdash efforts.

One consequence of the repeated delays out there that those in positions of authority may not be tracking is the health crisis they’re creating for examinees. Twitter user Emily C. Smith recently shared her story on the platform and while her tale manages to have a relatively positive resolution, it’s impossible to believe that she’s alone in this:

Smith notes that UCLA Law was supportive throughout this ordeal, but that the school is ultimately tied to the greater university. Which is in turn tied to the health insurance contracts it signed. The slow motion tragedy of the American health insurance regime is one of deadlines and a lack of accountability.

It’s a great question. Anyone who defends privatized health insurance based on the “choice” it provides based on a grasp of economics drawn from the back of an Ayn Rand placemat has clearly never dealt with insurance companies. Not even the guy who crafted the idea of health insurance “choice” believes it’s a “choice.” Insurance companies tell you they’ll only cover you on the first and that they’ll drop you on the 23rd and you just have to deal with it. There isn’t much incentive to provide real service because they know you don’t really have a choice but to accept what they give you.

We have officially entered the era of health coverage by social media influencer ranking! Let’s pat ourselves on the back.

Since this story is almost certainly not unique and there are people out there about to take more hits with increased delays and some law firms still pushing off start dates — not to mention the high likelihood that the next round of online exams will also crash — this is apparently the secret to getting your basic human needs covered. So start working on your clever hashtags and start @ing your health insurance providers!


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Purdue Pharma accused of causing $2.2T in damages amid opioid epidemic – MedCity News

The maker of a painkiller seen as one of the chief culprits in the opioid crisis is being accused of causing more than $2 trillion in damages.

Nearly all the states, plus the District of Columbia and territories, made claims against Purdue Pharma totaling $2.156 trillion in connection with the bankruptcy filing the company made last year, according to court documents. The joint filing was made Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, New York.

Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, is the maker of OxyContin, a long-acting formulation of the opioid painkiller oxycodone. The drug – along with other opioid painkillers marketed by other firms – has been blamed for driving the nationwide opioid crisis that has been going on for more than two decades.

“The opioid epidemic has ravaged this country as a single family has made billions profiting from the destruction it caused,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in an emailed statement. “While [Monday’s] filing may lay out the monetary impact that Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family have had on the United States, this financial toll only accounts for a sliver of the damage inflicted on the American people.”

Purdue could not be immediately reached for comment.

Purdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year in an effort to block more than 2,000 lawsuits from municipal, state and Native American tribal governments. However, state attorneys general at the time balked at the move amid reports that the Sackler family, which owns the drugmaker, had wired about $1 billion to bank accounts located overseas.

The bankruptcy filing was part of a settlement the company proposed, which would also include the Sacklers contributing $3 billion of their own money, while Purdue would put all of its assets into a trust or similar entity established to benefit claimants and the public at large. Meanwhile, a new company would be established that would market Purdue’s products under certain restrictions and contribute doses of medications used to treat opioid addiction and reverse overdose, at low or no cost.

Purdue is one of numerous drugmakers whose products have been implicated in the opioid crisis, a list that also includes firms such as Mallinckrodt and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as well as the major pharmaceutical distributors and several large retail pharmacy chains.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 15,000 people died from overdoses on prescription opioids in 2018. Starting in the late 1990s, several drug companies began heavily marketing opioid painkillers, assuring physicians that patients would not become addicted to them. But the drugs turned out to in fact be highly addictive, and the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 10.3 million people misused prescription opioids in 2018, while 2 million were seen as having an opioid use disorder.

Photo: Moussa81, Getty Images

Billion-Dollar Biglaw Firm Walks Back Its Pandemic Salary Cuts

(Image via Getty)

COVID-19 has thrown the legal profession into upheaval, but for some firms, the time has come to readjust and reassess the austerity measures that were put into place to prepare for the economic downturn. We’ve already reported on several firms that have announced partial and complete rollbacks on their salary cuts, but we now yet another Biglaw firm is reversing course, and almost everyone at the firm is sure to be thrilled.

Since March, Reed Smith — which raked in $1,246,926,000 in 2019 gross revenue, making it 26th on the Am Law 100 ranking — has announced not one, not two, not three, but FOUR rounds of salary reductions for partners, associates, and staff. First, the firm announced that partner cash distributions would be slowed as a “precaution” to “brac[e] for the short-term and potential long-term economic impacts of COVID-19. A short time later, in mid April, the firm came for associate salaries, announcing 15 percent cuts that would last from May through the end of August. About two weeks later, the firm announced that partner bonuses were being deferred and split into separate payments (and the same would happen for staff discretionary bonuses). Then, on June 1, the firm announced that its salary cuts for associates would not only last through the end of the year, but they’d increase to 20 percent. On top of that, staff earning more than $100,000 would take a 10 percent salary hit while other professionals would see reduced workweeks, reduced salaries, and furloughs.

Earlier this week, Sandy Thomas, Reed Smith’s global managing partner, announced that June’s salary cuts, which were originally supposed to last through the end of 2020, would be reduced for some — but not all — those affected, starting in September and lasting through the end of the year. From the American Lawyer:

According to his statement, a current 20% compensation cut for fixed-share partners will be reduced to 15% on September 1. For counsel, a current 20% compensation reduction will be reduced to 15% on the same day.

For associates, a current 15% compensation cut will remain at that level. (Previously, the firm planned a 20% cut for September 1, Thomas’s statement said.)

For professional staff earning more than $100,000, a current 10% cut will become a 5% cut.

Everyone gets a break — except for associates, whose reward is that they won’t be forced to endure even bigger pay cuts for the rest of the year. See, we said almost everyone would be thrilled. “Reed Smith has kept its focus on what is most important as we manage through this extraordinary pandemic: protecting the safety and well-being of our people and supporting our clients,” Thomas said. Sorry, associates. This doesn’t seem fair, but always remember: it could be much worse.

Let’s hope more firms are able to roll back COVID-19 austerity measures — and soon.

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

Reed Smith Partially Walks Back Pay Cuts for Lawyers, Staff [American Lawyer]

Earlier: Biglaw Firm Cuts Back Partner Compensation Amid COVID-19 Economic Upheaval
Billion-Dollar Biglaw Firm Cutting Associate Salaries
Reed Smith Partners Taking Another COVID-19 Financial Hit
Biglaw Firm Announces Even Deeper Austerity Cuts


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

ICE Is Lying About Its COVID-19 Death And Testing Rates

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Everybody get your surprised faces ready, because today, I’d like to tell you about how ICE is manipulating its statistics on COVID-19 in the immigration jails, and endangering a lot of people’s lives in the process. (And by jail, I meant “civil detention of people who have mostly not been accused of any crime.” Oopsies!)

If you look at the detainee statistics DHS offers publicly on COVID-19, you will see a very high success rate for avoiding COVID-19 cases. Their website says that, as of August 14, they have had a total of five deaths and 4,721 confirmed cases in custody, out of a detained population of 21,402. That’s remarkably good for an institutional setting, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risk is high — people frequently move in and out and there are limited opportunities to socially distance or practice good hygiene.

As it turns out, these remarkable numbers were not achieved through tender care of the vulnerable people in ICE custody, but through blatant manipulation of the statistics. A recent PBS Frontline piece on this lays out how ICE keeps its COVID-19 death numbers so low: It waits until people are very sick and then discharges them from custody. If they die, or manage not to die but rack up huge hospital bills, or can’t find anyone willing to house them because they’re sick, too bad. What’s more important here: human life, or making Trump immigration policy look good?

The COVID-19 testing numbers ICE reports on its website are even more impressive than their reported death rate. In fact, as of August 14, the website says they’ve tested roughly 2,500 more detainees than they had in custody. This could be the result of testing certain people more than once, or possibly the testing number is cumulative. I don’t know. What I do know is that at least three federal courts have had to order ICE to do the widespread COVID-19 testing that it claims it’s already doing.

Last Sunday evening, in fact, a Northern California district court made an emergency order requiring ICE to test everyone detained or working at ICE’s Mesa Verde Processing Facility. Judge Vince Chhabria said ICE and its private prison contractor, the GEO Group, showed “deliberate indifference” to the pandemic by refusing to test staff or detainees. In another case the ACLU brought in Maryland, a federal judge found that an ICE official’s statement, made under penalty of perjury, that there were zero cases in a certain jail was “demonstrably false.”

And earlier this month, the ACLU of Southern California discovered that ICE has refused let to GEO jailers at the Adelanto Processing Center actually use the 1,900 test kits they received via overnight courier back in May. As a result, exactly one of the 305 detainees who had symptoms between March 1 and July 15 was tested. A federal court actually ordered Adelanto to follow CDC guidelines for prisons back in April, and the ACLU has asked it to enforce that order.

As a result of all this “deliberate indifference,” the cross-border immigrant advocacy group Al Otro Lado has started asking for volunteer lawyers to draw up estate plans for detainees, to make sure detainees’ minor children are cared for if they die in detention. It would be great if this post got a few more volunteers for them, but it would be even better if this country treated immigrants like human beings.


Lorelei Laird is a freelance writer specializing in the law, and the only person you know who still has an “I Believe Anita Hill” bumper sticker. Find her at wordofthelaird.com.

Opioid Dealer’s Charity Allegedly A Front For Jacking Up Price Of Other Drug

Morning Docket: 08.20.20

* New Jersey’s governor said “bring it on” in response to a lawsuit filed by the Trump Campaign against the state’s mail-in-voting plan. Have a good idea for how the Trump Campaign can respond… [Politico]

* The practicalities associated with COVID-19 are leading to some interesting trials. [ABA Journal]

* A residents’ group on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is lawyering up to take action against homelessness in the area that has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. [New York Post]

* The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act one week after the November election. [Hill]

* An attorney has sued his former law firm for allegedly jilting him out of a fee split for a lucrative client the attorney brought to the firm. [Texas Lawyer]

* A lawsuit in Alabama will determine if curbside voting will be allowed during the next election. If you can be sworn into the bar curbside, it seems like voting curbside should be no problem. [AL.com]


Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Zimbabwe to meet Vatican envoy over Catholic bishops’ criticism – The Zimbabwean

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s government on Wednesday said it had sought a meeting with the Vatican representative to understand whether Catholic bishops who accused it of human rights abuses and cracking down on critics were speaking on behalf of the Holy See.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi described a pastoral letter written by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference last weekend as “inappropriately prescriptive and grossly disrespectful”.

The bishops’ strongly worded letter said the country had a multi-layered crisis, including economic collapse, deepening poverty, corruption and human rights abuses.

Inflation running at more than 800% is the clearest sign of the worst economic crisis in over a decade and has evoked memories of hyperinflation under former president Robert Mugabe, whose 37-year rule was ended by an army coup in 2017.

Ziyambi said Harare authorities took offence to the bishop’s description of the government, headed by Mugabe’s replacement, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as lacking the knowledge, skill or emotional stability to resolve Zimbabwe’s political and economic problems.

“The statement constitutes an outright insult on the person of President E.D. Mnangagwa and his entire government, and is couched in language decidedly unbecoming of an institution such as the Catholic Church,” said Ziyambi.

“Government is compelled to engage the Vatican in order to ascertain whether or not such statements reflect the official attitude of the Holy See towards Zimbabwe’s leadership or whether these are merely the views of the various individuals concerned.”

Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo would meet the local Vatican representative, said Ziyambi.

Ziyambi denied there was a political crisis in Zimbabwe and said it was all social media hype.

But critics say several activists have been arrested, abducted or tortured for speaking against the government and accuse Mnangagwa of using the COVID-19 pandemic to stifle dissent.

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Covid-19: Health worker strikes, limited testing, and clinic closures hamper Zimbabwe’s response – The Zimbabwean

Zimbabwe health workers protest against economic hardship and poor working conditions during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Harare, Zimbabwe July 6, 2020.

The country had had 141 deaths from covid-19 and 5378 recorded cases as of 20 August, nearly five months after the first fatality ‪on 23 March. The people infected include 480 health workers, said the Ministry of Health.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬1‬‬

At 14%, the weekly percentage increase in infections in Zimbabwe from 5 to 11 August is also much lower than ‬that of its neighbours. Botswana saw an increase of 33%, Namibia 31%, Zambia 26%, and Mozambique 22% in the same week, figures from the World Health Organization showed.2

Chiratidzo Ndhlovu, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, believes that the country’s early imposition of lockdown may have helped avoid an initial surge in cases. “We didn’t have a lot of flights coming into the country. I think that may have protected us,” she said.

Serological testing capacity currently stands at 1000 to 1500 tests a day, up from just 25 tests on 10 April. But there are concerns in the medical community that testing is happening mostly in urban populations and that it may not capture current infection levels.

“There are several rapid response teams who do testing across the country, and those are the ones that get reported,” said Rashida Ferrand, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, currently seconded to head up the covid-19 unit at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. “But that doesn’t tell you about the cases that are out in the community that don’t get tested, or die and never make it to care. The cases reported in the national statistics are definitely a complete underestimate, as are the deaths.”

Limited capacity

Reinaldo Ortuno, Médecins Sans Frontières’ head of mission in Harare, told The BMJ, “The number of tests outside Harare and Bulawayo is close to zero. [The authorities] are trying their best to improve the health system [and] to set up isolation facilities—they’re doing the piping for oxygen, getting the supplies. But it’s taking time.”

Several health clinics outside main urban centres have had to close after infections were reported there. The most recently reported case was that of Chikonohono Clinic in Chinhoyi, northwest of Harare, on 15 August.

Staff strikes at hospitals that remain open also mean limited capacity to care for patients. Ferrand’s 300 bed unit in Harare currently holds only 30 patients, partly because only limited numbers of patients are being referred.

The health workers’ strike, which started in June over insufficient provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and low salaries has reduced capacity further (nurses earn the equivalent of US$30 (£22.70; €25.10) a month, doctors US$115).

Aaron Musara, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association, believes that more clinical staff would have been infected if the nurses had not been on strike. “The government is not taking the issue of PPE seriously,” he said.

Ortuno said that infections could rise, warning that “perhaps in October and November we will have a surge.”

But hospitals may still not be ready to handle any increase in cases, said Ndhlovu, who also chairs the National Medicine and Therapeutics Policy Advisory Committee. “We have tried to make sure that we get the isolation and treatment centres ready to receive patients,” she said, “but if we don’t have the healthcare workers, at a minimum, to take care of these patients, we are going to struggle.”

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Zimbabwe’s unaffordable billion-dollar land deal – The Zimbabwean

 Zimbabwe can hardly pay decent wages for essential services such as in the health sector. It is in no position to raise the contribution required for the US$3.5-billion compensation programme for white farmers.

The broke Zimbabwean government has announced that it will pay white farmers a whopping US$3.5-billion as compensation for the losses incurred from the chaotic and ill-conceived Fast Track Land Reform Programme of 2000. The agreement, termed the Global Compensation Deed, was entered into between the government and the Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe (an exclusive union for white commercial farmers) in July 2020.

This is in the face of a worsening economic situation and growing restlessness within the population. The land reform programme covers the thorny issues of property rights and rule of law. These have been a sore point between Zimbabwe and many western nations, and the basis for sanctions against the country such as the US’ Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Acts.

While the Global Compensation Deed speaks to the 2013 constitutional provisions as well as the promises of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration, it has to be understood in the broader context of the Zimbabwean situation. Mnangagwa’s government – under pressure from a rapidly declining economic situation, boiling political temperatures and a restive population facing desperation and destitution – is eager for a different narrative and to win a few friends internationally.

Spirited efforts to rekindle international engagements have so far yielded little and the country’s circumstances haven’t changed. Zimbabwe can hardly pay decent wages for essential services such as in the health sector. It is in no position to raise the contribution required for the US$3.5-billion, even with a partial and staggered payment structure.

The land reform programme was at the core of international disengagement 20 years ago. The administration is hoping the latest move will curry favour with western governments and lead to a better reception of Zimbabwe from international financial markets. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced that government would be setting up a fundraising team comprising his ministry and the commercial farmers to go on an international junket to raise the committed funds.

However, it will take more than compensating farmers to settle the country’s current crisis. Any such efforts are being fast overtaken by citizens’ rejection of state-sanctioned brutality that has escalated since the post-election violence of 2018.

But Zimbabwe is already deep in debt due to long-term bonds and is unlikely to attract more bonds from the international community. The country owes about US$8-billion to creditors, including the World Bank and African Development Bank. Financial institutions will reasonably be hesitant to lend money to Zimbabwe under such circumstances.

The sanctions imposed on the country by the European Union and the US were largely a reaction to the land reform programme which decimated property rights and contravened the basic tenets of rule of law. However, it will take more than compensating farmers to settle the country’s current crisis. Any such efforts are being fast overtaken by citizens’ rejection of state-sanctioned brutality that has escalated since the post-election violence of 2018.

The country’s failure to address human rights malpractices, economic mismanagement and political rights violations, among other pressing issues, stands in the way of improved relations with western countries.

The dire economic problems Zimbabwe has suffered since 2000 are a result of a cocktail of issues including poor administration, mismanagement of resources and corruption. The country has suffered intermittent food shortages and an inability to resuscitate the country’s agribusiness – the backbone of the economy.

Former president Robert Mugabe claimed that the land reform programme was aimed at empowering the black majority, yet more and more Zimbabweans face hunger and starvation. A few black farmers have been productive commercial farmers, but overall economic productivity has been low. The economy never recovered fully from the impact of the land reform programme, and unemployment rates and poverty are rising.

Unlike his predecessor, Mnangagwa is coming across as ideologically bankrupt and grasping at straws to lift the economy.

Currently health workers are protesting against poor wages, insufficient equipment and unfavourable working conditions. At the same time, the general public is challenging the erosion of livelihood options, the clampdown on civic space, the misuse of power and unbridled corruption. And the government is reluctant to address hyperinflation, cash shortages and a political crisis.

The agreement to compensate white farmers is one of Mnangagwa’s many symbolic actions that go against what the late Mugabe stood for. Unlike his predecessor, Mnangagwa is coming across as ideologically bankrupt and grasping at straws to lift the economy.

The issue of compensation has been controversial and highly divisive within the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) over the past decade. It goes against the grain of core party thinking on property rights, land as a national asset and the injustice of land apportionment during the colonial era. Needless to say, it has drawn a spirited backlash from inside Zanu-PF among those who perceive this as a betrayal of the liberation movement.

However, the compensation journey is far from over. Zimbabwe is in an economic tailspin and the country’s international credit worthiness is such that no key international finance houses would risk lending it money. Paying white farmers billions of dollars that it doesn’t have won’t resolve Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis – and is certainly not a priority considering the country’s pressing needs in the face of a global pandemic. DM

Echoing “The march is not ended” – The Zimbabwean

A man waves a flag as he celebrates the resignation of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in front of the parliament in Harare on November 21, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Tony KARUMBA (Photo credit should read TONY KARUMBA/AFP/Getty Images)

The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) read with grave concern, the governments response to the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) pastoral letter of the 14th of August 2020 entitled “The March is not Ended”. The government response presented by Mrs Monica Mutsvangwa, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, revealed the following worrying signs:

  1. Responsibility: While the churches, including the ZCBC, have consistently identified the partial negative contribution of natural disasters and international isolation to government’s economic performance, it has however noted with grave concern that, the Government of Zimbabwe consistently takes no responsibility for its own failings characterized by corruption, policy inconsistencies and above all, failure to unite the nation towards a common vision. The denialism that characterizes the Government of Zimbabwe’s handling of criticism has now become a deeply worrying trend. The blame-shifting labelling of critical voices as ‘regime change agents’, and recently ‘terrorists’ smacks of the government’s unwillingness or inability to engage on the basis of ideas as well as robbing citizens of any hope that things can improve.
  2. Personalization: Pastoral letters, including the “The March is not Ended”, are products of prayerful discernment by the college of bishops informed by compassionate listening to the experiences of the congregants. Singling out the Most Revd Archbishop Richard Ndlovu, can only be viewed as undermining the most important asset and character of the church that is its Unity. Our humble interpretation is that this is meant to isolate individuals from a collective discernment process with the sinister aim of diluting the collective voice of the church. The ZCC takes with exception any efforts to interfere with the unity of the Church for which Jesus prayed in John 17:21.
  3. Courtesy: The government response was overtly too emotional and disrespectful for formal communication. Using public media to utter disrespectful communication against the person of Archbishop Ndlovu does not only present the government as inappropriately deploying the resources of the state, but also increases the toxicity that is already characterizing our public space. If the government had strong objections to the Bishops’ communication, it could have addressed those issues without appearing to be discourteous to the viewers of the only national television station. The government will do well through its public officials to instil positive engagement on the basis of ideas rather than to use public media to buttress negativity.
  4. Unity: The government response to the pastoral letter “The March is not Ended”, also missed its unifying and national orientation but instead appropriated distorted historical links and false comparisons with the Rwandan genocide. While the comparisons are unfounded and outrageous, they also seem to be intentionally or unintentionally stoking ethnic and tribal divisions which actually resulted in loss of thousands of lives in Matabeleland and Midlands during the Gukurahundi. To frivolously associate the bishops’ statement with such a major deep scar in the history of the nation, is not only insensitive to the existing present pain of those affected by Gukurahundi, but also gives the impression that the government is paying lip-service to national healing and reconciliation. The government statement could have been worth ignoring if it was only falsifying history, but it cannot be ignored as it appears dismissive of the invaluable work done by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, under the ZCBC, to offer documentation of the atrocities committed by the army during that dark period. The legacy of Gukurahundi still stalks the nation as those past hurts remain unhealed. His Excellency, President ED Mnangagwa has on several occasions spoken of the need to find healing on these past hurts, yet the government position gives the false impression that the 1987 Unity Accord brought closure to that episode.
  5. History: The ecumenical churches’ relationship with the state has been consistent from colonial Rhodesia to independent Zimbabwe. The government response presented by Minister Mutsvangwa, seeks to create false discontinuity between the contemporary bishops and the suffering servants of the past. Such a view misses the importance of continuity of Tradition within Christian theology and practice. The consistency with which the ZCBC and the ecumenical church have pursued justice, peace and unity cannot be forgotten. Coincidentally, the issues raised by the “The March is not Ended” of the 14th of August 2020 are fundamentally similar to calls by Bishop Donal Raymond Lamont in his Open letter to the Rhodesian Government on the 11th of August 1976. In both cases, the message was well-meaning and consistent with the prophetic traditions of Micah, Amos, Jeremiah, John the Baptist and even our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have responded to this salvation history with repentance found life. Those who rejected it suffered destruction, not only in a spiritual sense but also materially.

Calls

  1. In light of the issues raised above, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches:

6.1     Seeks to affirm its solidarity with the spirit and intent of the “The March is not Ended” as honest communication aimed at calling the government of Zimbabwe to meaningful and respectful engagement to find solutions to the current pressing issues;

6.2     Seeks to enter into a collective discernment process to understand this government’s preparedness to engage and hence calls for the urgent convening of the National Episcopal Conference of the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations to deliberate on the state of the nation and agree on the appropriate ecumenical action;

6.3     Calls on all Christians and churches to pray for peace, well-being and courage for Archbishop Ndlovu, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the broad Christian Church in Zimbabwe as they will be demanded to exercise their prophetic and pastoral mandate for the nation;

6.4     Calls on all citizens to remain united across the denominational, ethnic, and political divide realizing that only through active, organized and peaceful citizens’ participation, the nation will be totally transformed;

6.5     Calls upon President ED Mnangagwa to provide leadership by retracting the personal attacks on Archbishop Ndhlovu and the church leaders, but invite the nation to an inclusive national dialogue towards a home grown solution to the challenges that are facing the nation

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