By Panashe Gwesu
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Small to Medium Enterprises, Women and Law in Southern Africa, REPS Theatre, with support from UN Women and funding from the European Union, has initiated a campaign aimed at increasing awareness about women’s participation in politics.
Named “End Violence: Advocating for Equality and Ending Violence Against Women in Politics,” this campaign was launched today in Harare’s Hopley suburb.
Speaking during the event, Admire Mutizwa, Director for Peace and Just Societies at ZCC, highlighted the campaign’s core mission, which is to raise awareness about curbing violence against women involved in politics and to inspire them to assume leadership roles within their communities.
“We are in electoral period; violence remains 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,” said Mutizwa
In light of the ongoing electoral period, Mutizwa pointed out the distressingly high levels of violence against women and the decline in women’s political participation.
Ernest Chimboza, the representative from the Ministry, emphasized their responsibility to advocate for equal rights for women in all aspects of life as outlined in the country’s Constitution.
“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.
“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,” Chimboza said.
He highlighted research findings that exposed the challenges women face in attaining prominent positions similar to men within the community.
Chimboza emphasized the ministry’s role in fostering equal opportunities and ensuring that women are provided with fair chances.
The Zimbabwean Constitution places a strong emphasis on women’s rights, as seen in Section 3, which upholds the recognition of human dignity, equality of all individuals, and gender equality.
The Constitution also underscores the importance of good governance principles that recognize women’s rights and involvement.
Despite the presence of progressive laws, there remains a significant gender disparity in the representation of women in Parliament and local governing bodies.
Despite comprising 52 percent of the population, women constituted only 48 percent of Senators and a mere 31.5 percent of Members of the National Assembly after the 2018 general election.
This is noteworthy considering that 60 seats were reserved for women through a party-list system. Only 11.9 percent of the constituency Members of the National Assembly were women.
Following the 2022 by-elections, a mere five women were elected out of the 28 parliamentary seats contested. At the local government level, a stark gender imbalance persisted, with only 19 women elected to councils in comparison to 103 men.
