THE Zimbabwe Council of Churches in partnership with Ministry of Women Affairs, Small to Medium Enterprise and Women and Law in Southern Africa have embarked on a campaign to raise awareness on women participation in politics.
The event, which was held at Anthony Shopping Centre in Hopely, was conducted with the support of Reps Theatre and UN Women, with funding from the European Union.
The campaign, dubbed End Violence Stand Up for Equality, End Violence Against Women in politics, Stop Violence, Yes to Equal Participation was attended by various government departments including the police, Ministry of Youths, Sports Arts and Recreation, Harare City Council and the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Speaking to ZimGospel Masters, ZCC Director for Peace and Just Societies Mr Admire Mutizwa said the main agenda of the road shows is to raise awareness to end violence against women’s participation in politics and to encourage them to take leadership roles in their communities.
“We are in electoral period, violence remain high against women and in recent statistics we have seen the decline in participation. So the whole idea is to encourage and prevent violence against women in politics and encourage the society to support women to take leadership position so that we can achieve the gender equality,” he said.
The representative from Ministry of Women Affairs, Small to Medium Enterprise, Enerst Chimboza, said their mandate is to fight for equal rights for women in every aspect of life in line with the provisions of the Zimbabwean Constitution.
“We are here at Hopely today having some fun with you. Our main agenda is to support women with our partners. We empower women in terms of wealth and social life. But today we are here to spread the issue of gender equality among man and women,” he said.
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“It was observed in some researches that women are facing lots of challenges in terms of acquiring top positions which are similar to those of man in the community. So as the ministry it is our duty to foster and to observe that they are given equal opportunities.”
The constitution places a strong emphasis on women’s rights. Section 3 states that Zimbabwe is founded on respect for values and principles that include recognition of the inherent dignity and worth of each human being, recognition of the equality of all human beings, and gender equality. The section also states that principles of good governance, which bind the State and all governmental institutions and agencies at every level, include recognition of the rights of women.
According to Election watch report Section 17 says that the State must promote full gender balance and in particular must promote the full participation of women in all spheres of Zimbabwean society on the basis of equality with men.
Both genders should be equally represented in all institutions and agencies of government at every level.
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Despite the progressive laws that have been enacted, women are not adequately represented in Parliament or local authorities.
Women constitute 52% of the country’s population, but, following the 2018 general election, only 48% of Senators were women and only 31,5% of Members of the National Assembly were women – this despite 60 seats being reserved for women elected on a party-list system.
Only 11,9% of the constituency Members of the National Assembly were women.
Following the 2022 by-elections, out of the 28 parliamentary seats contested only five women were elected.
At local government level only 19 women were elected to council as opposed to 103 men.
