By Nyasha Dube
With a week left until nomination court sits, women led political parties say they have been struggling to get female candidates to run for top positions due to limited resources to run political campaigns, as well as the timeless stereotypes associated with politics.
Nomination court sits on the 21st of June 2023 to select candidates who qualify for the Presidential, National Assembly and Local Authority categories, with Elections set for the 23rd of August.
This also comes at a time when Zimbabwe’s second vice president position has been vacant following Kembo Mohadi’s exit, and no female name has been touted to occupy the position.
According to the Women’s Political Participation Africa Barometer 2021, African countries are still far from achieving women’s equal and effective participation in political decision-making.
Women constitute only 24 per cent of the 12,113 parliamentarians in Africa, 25 per cent in the lower houses and 20 per cent in the upper houses of parliaments.
Women’s Political Participation Africa Barometer 2021
The prejudices and stereotypes associated with women in politics has resulted in women shunning away from top positions or even participating as the electorate.
The deep seated patriarchal values and political violence (Online and offline), have led to masculine politics therefore perpetuating gender disparity.
According to Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, despite the adoption of gender quotas by government and some political parties, women who want to participate in politics continue to face challenges such as cultural barriers, inadequate resources and lack of support.
The underrepresentation of women as a result of these barriers diminishes voice and influence of women in shaping the political discourse.
An interview with one of the female presidential candidates running for the 2023 elections, Linda Masarira who leads the Labour Econimists and African Democrats (LEAD) party, revealed that there is a continous decline in women who take up seats in politics due to all forms of violence.
“The political landscape is not easy and it’s more difficult for women as they face socio-economic barriers. Political participation sounds easy in theory but a lot of work is done on the ground and women need a lot of capacity strengthening and as a party we have been tryingour best to mobilizemore women toparticipatenot only as voters but also as candidates.”
Masarira also cites financial incapacitation as another hindrance to women’s political participation.
“Political economy plays a huge role. In as much as we continue pushing for gender equality, most women do not have adequate control of resources to run as candidates hence they end up pulling out of the race,” said Masarira.
The cost of running a political campaign has proven to be way beyond many women’s reach, let alone nomination fee for presidential candidates.
Presidential nomination fee was USD$20,000 before it was challenged one of the presidential candidates . Con court ruled that the Parliamentary Legal Committee had failed its constitutional duty to examine SI 144/22 which was gazette in August 2022. The PLC was ordered to nullify the SI and reinstate the 2018 nomination fee which was USD$1,000
The constitution of Zimbabwe puts much emphasis on women’s rights, specifically section 17 which says that the state must promote gender balance and ensure full participation and representation of women in all spheres, including all institutions and government agencies.
Sections 120 and 124 which were amended in 2021, give women special representation in senate and national assembly with sixty women elected 7the national assembly on party lists. Section 268, also amended in 2021, provides for 10 party-list women to be elected to every provincial and metropolitan council.
Section 277 states that the Electoral Act may provide for additional women councilors to be elected on a party list basis, to constitute 30% of the total membership of councils.
The setback of reserved seats, according to a statement by Veritas Zim, is that it discourages women’s participation in constituency and ward elections because political parties push for their female candidates to contest the reserved seats while constituency and ward seats are reserved for men.
Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) Executive Director Stabile Dewa says government must put in place all outstanding electoral reforms that enable women to fully participate in electoral processes as both voters and candidates.
“Not much has been done since 2018 to create a level playing field for women in the political arena. For example, sections 17, 56 and 80 of the constitution have not been aligned with the electoral act to empower the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to reject political parties lists for Parliamentary and Council seats that are not gender balanced. Not much has been done to protect women political activists from all forms of political violence, perpetrators remain unpunished. The Government in 2022 put in place the cyber security act but it is silent on specifically dealing with online violence against women political activists. The sexual harassment act has not been put in place to curb harassment of women in politics”
Dewa, WALPE
Despite these challenges, women in politics continue to hope for a Zimbabwe where women can occupy top political positions.
“Some African countries have been doing it. We have Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa among others where women are equally represented in politics. In Tanzania they have Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan as head of state, showing that it’s possible and achievable. Going forward we will work with tertiary students and conduct public lectures on women’s political participation,” said Masarira.
Dewa also shared the same sentiments:
“Malawi and Rwanda are good examples were gender mainstreaming has worked well for them. WALPE has organised leadership exchange programs for women political leaders between the two countries and Zimbabwe which have been eye-openers in how gender mainstreaming can positively impact a country. Rwanda is one of the leading countries in the world in achieving gender equality iin key leadership positions. The biggest lesson from Rwanda is the political will and buy in from their President who has been at the forefront of advancing gender equity in the country. In Malawi, WALPE learnt the importance of political inclusion and tolerance as their Chairperson of the Malawi Parliamentary Women’s Caucus does not belong to any political party as she is an independent something that is unheard of in the Zimbabwe context. Political parties must look beyond polarisation and embrace capacity and talent,”Dewa said