Citizens Coalition for Change’s (CCC) only female candidates in Kwekwe district both for Parliament and Council have won.
Melody Chingarande was the only female Council candidate and has retained her seat for ward 5 in Mbizo whilst Judith Tobaiwa has retained her seat as the Member of Parliament for Kwekwe Central.
According to Kwekwe central constituency Chief Elections officer Willard Fazhe Judith Tobaiwa of CCC got 10 933 votes and Energy Dhala Ncube of ZANU PF 6541. Whilst Melody won 2 657 with ZANUPF’s Tapiwa Muganhu getting 908 votes.
“Thank you to the citizens for remaining vigilant against all odds. The people have spoken and shown who they want to lead them. Campaigning was pretty hard and even the day of voting there was a lot of intimidation but citizens remained strong and firm. You chose me to represent you and for the next five years I shall be your servant,” said Judith Tobaiwa.
Melody who was recalled from council and was not able to fulfil her term in office was ecstatic at being given another chance in council. She will be joined by four other female Councilors who will come in through the quota system.
“I’m happy to be back in council. It wasn’t an easy road to these elections. I stood against five males who had better resources at their disposal but the citizens have spoken,” she said.
The number of women taking part in active politics continues to dwindle each election. According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) from the last election women participating as Presidential candidates dropped from 17% to 0 percent. Parliamentary candidates dropped from 14% to 11% and from 17% to the current 15% for local government aspirants.
“I really wanted more women in council so that we could collectively represent the needs of women. The women’s quota will be a plus for us but more women really need to rise up,” she said.
The drastic drop in women’s political participation has been attributed to a number of factors which include cost of nomination fees, verbal and sexual abuse of female candidates, an unfavourable environment characterised by patriarchy amongst other reasons.
“Campaigning for this election hasn’t been easy; the environment is very toxic. I was vicitmised daily and some people had the audacity to come chant slogans by my gate calling me all sorts of names. My family and I live in constant fear but I persevered because it is my desire to see political change in my generation. Women’s organisations, lobby groups, and the government need to take appropriate action as there is need for intensified advocacy for 50-50 participation and representation in all positions,” said Melody.
Challenges women face are the same across political parties. Yeukai Paradza ZANU PF Council candidate for Vungu Rural District says that women in politics aren’t valued much as people prefer men as they have more resources and power within communities.
“Men in politics use their money and power to influence other women to spread malicious lies about you as a woman in politics. You get labeled as a prostitute and men who hold influential positions in politics look at you more as a sex object than competition,” she said.
The constitution of Zimbabwe has a number of provisions to bolster the participation of women in politics. Section 17 states that the State must take positive measures to rectify gender discrimination and imbalances resulting from past practices and policies. A National Gender Policy and Strategy is also in place. To add to this, section 124 1 (b) of the constitution calls for proportional representation in the National Assembly. But factors like the exorbitant nomination fees stifle the involvement of women in politics. ZEC pegged the nomination fees at US$20000.00 for President, US$1000.00 for a constituent Member of Parliament and US$200.00 for Provincial Councils, Senate, Local Government and National Assembly party lists.
According to the Long Term Feminist Analysis 2023 Pre-election report, young women and women from across the political divide experienced body shaming and vitriol targeted at their gender and sex. Women said that sexual harassment that is rooted in patriarchal culture hinders them from pushing for gender equality agenda even when elected to positions of power as they sometimes play according to the whims of men in their parties. The report also states that the CCC candidate selection process was costly and delays in finalising the selection processes resulted in high costs to travel to the venues for the different rounds of voting thereby disadvantaging women aspiring candidates who had to pay for their supporters’ transportation to attend the multiple voting and screening processes.
Sally Ncube, National Chairperson for Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) said that political violence played a major role in the numbers drop. “Some women pulled out of the race or postponed to the next election because of violence that they have gone through or that they see aspiring candidates going through. Whether its online violence, hate speech it has a way of deterring women from stepping up,” she said.
Sally also said that political institutions are viewed as not safe and they don’t have safety mechanisms and structures that confidently share how they support women who would have been harassed. “But in this election, we also saw that some women did not show up because they are not confident of themselves as worthy candidates. For some it’s an issue of time poverty because they have responsibilities at family level, at workplaces so if you have to choose livelihood against political office you would then see that quite a number of women could not show up,” she added.
The Gender Audit produced by the Zimbabwe Gender Commission hints at legal reforms that need to happen to create an enabling environment for women to participate. One condition would be for ZEC not to accept lists that are not in compliance with section 17 of the constitution that touches on gender parity.
Sally went on to say that for this to be effective, political parties need to be held accountable so that they are gender responsive and women’s rights responsive.
“There is need for a comprehensive safeguarding mechanism where all political parties are made by law to have internal organisational policies for safeguarding and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse and capacity building to know when to detect violence and how to respond,” she said.
Zimbabwe is signatory to various conventions that call for equal representation of women across all sectors. These include the United Nations (UN), Africa Union (AU) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Conventions and Protocols. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) upholds women’s right to participate in public life and the (1995) Beijing Platform for Action is an appeal for women’s empowerment. While Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5 provides for gender equality in governance and all spheres of life. Zimbabwe is still a long way from achieving gender equality especially in politics.