Zimbabwe:Fury As Mugabe Assaults Women By Gift Kugara Only two months after digging into president Jacob Zuma’s international relations advisor Ms Lindiwe Zulu whom he described as “some stupid, idiotic, little street woman”, President Robert Mugabe has once again stirred the honest in his latest remarks on Zimbabwean women saying they were not educated and therefore not eligible for cabinet posts, gender activists have said. Women’s groups in Zimbabwe have responded angrily to President Robert Mugabe’s decision to appoint just three women to his 26-seat Cabinet. Defending his decision, Mugabe says women must do better in elections to be eligible for Cabinet posts. Women say the road to gender equity in Zimbabwean politics is a long one, given their disadvantaged background. Only 12 per cent of Zimbabwe’s new Cabinet is female, well below women’s 52 per cent share of the population recorded last year in Zimbabwe’s census. After swearing in his new ministers on Tuesday, President Robert Mugabe told journalists that there is nothing abnormal about having just three women in his 26-member Cabinet. “Give us the women. This time we did proportional representation, but there were just not enough women. Women are few in universities. It’s no longer necessary to do affirmative action; it’s free for all,” he said. “Education is for all now. It is mixed. The yield is the same. It is no longer necessary for us to have affirmative action; it is now free for all. Let women contest alongside men without any preferential treatment,” said Mugabe. The group’s chairwoman, Virginia Muwanigwa, said her members are not happy with Mugabe’s appointments. “We are disappointed that we have not been able to achieve the number of women in Cabinet according to what we expected in the constitution, which is actually 50-50 or 50 per cent,” she said. “And we are particularly disappointed because it is not just about the Cabinet, but what the Cabinet represents in the lives of people of Zimbabwe.” An official with the Women in Politics Support Unit, Patricia Muwandi, says not all hope is lost. She explains why women in Zimbabwe lag behind in politics. “The historical imbalances that have seen most women not getting enough opportunities as their male counterparts in terms of accessing education and the gender roles the women expect to play,” she said. “So this where we are saying; as an organization we want to work with the women to ensure that those with some qualifications can go further.” Girl Child Network CEO, Betty Makoni said “How can a President say Zimbabwe women are not educated when he has men with no ‘O’Levels in Parliament?” Zanu PF, Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba who was eyeing a Lands Ministry said “It doesn’t matter whether I went to school or not, I learnt how to hold a gun without going to school. What does being an MP or a minister has to do with going to school? I don’t care which committee I will be in.” Another ZANU PF’S Kwekwe Central MP-elect Masango Matambanadzo, a self-confessed Grade Two dropout won the July 31 harmonised elections in his constituency. Insiders in the Matambanadzo camp said the MP-elect relies on aides who do the writing and reading for him. In March this year, a Zanu-PF Hurungwe East MP Sarah Mahoka stunned the court when she said she was unable to read as she had only reached Grade 2. Mahoka made the startling disclosure while giving evidence during the trial of Temba Mliswa and 9 others charged with public violence.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 09:06:02 +0000
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