Africa Contact reporting from Zimbabwe

’I would like more women to participate in politics and leadership in Zimbabwe – they know about things’, a young Zimbabwean woman is telling us. We are visiting Zimbabwe for the 3rd time this year, just a little over two weeks after Denmark elected its first female prime minister and the question of women being a part of decision- making processes, leadership and politics is most present in our minds.

Although reports about Zimbabwean economy are describing a slow recovery after being battered by inflation and political turmoil, companies are still struggling to stay in business, which amongst other things are leaving many Zimbabweans with bleak job prospects.

Unemployment amongst youths in particular is high and many young Zimbabweans feel left behind by the politicians in terms of establishing measures that can support them in getting into higher education or finding a job. On top that tuition fees to enter higher education are almost impossible for students to pay. Furthermore, Zimbabweans we speak with are telling us about how especially young women are finding it difficult being without a job and stories about how they tend to prostitution in order to earn money to survive are becoming more common.

At the same time being unemployed and with depressing prospects of getting a job are making Zimbabwean youths more vulnerable of getting involved with politically motivated activities by the youth militia.

‘So many young people are sitting at home doing nothing, because if they can’t afford university, don’t have job and no money what should they do?’, another young women is asking.

We also meet young women and men who are trying to improve their situations by becoming members of youth organisations in order to promote a change. But just the word ‘change’ can cause you trouble, we are being told, as the word is automatically being linked to rebellious behaviour. So youth organisations are being challenged as potential members fear and sometimes face severe punishments if they engage in their activities. ‘You can be raped and even killed why should we engage in politics – I want to live!’, the young women says.

Declaration by the NCA National Youth Assembly

NCA Press Release: 14 July 2011

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) youth Assembly leadership today 14 July 2011 converged at Bumbiro/Isisekelo House (NCA Headquarters), Harare to strategise and come up with a clear roadmap for the young people ahead of the referendum and beyond. And to map out a concrete programme on how we galvanise youth to attain total socio-political and economic freedom in our lifetime. In a bid to create an ideologically sound, political youth assembly to be, organisationally the most definitive in the struggle for freedom and a new constitution.

The meeting which was attended by all the provincial and constituency representatives resolved:-
• To embark on a massive recruitment program for the young people to join the NCA.
• Called for the immediate stop of the COPAC process to pave way for an Independent Commission to start a fresh process that will involve the young people and different sectors of society
• To intensify the Take Charge Campaign in communities through demonstrations, meetings, rallies and road shows to encourage Zimbabweans to reject the COPAC constitution if the government goes ahead with this process
• To mobilise the young people to go and register to vote in the coming referendum
Noting the escalation of political violence cases being reported in various parts of the country, we wish to state that as the Vanguard movement of the organisation, we will not sit idle instead we will join hands with our mothers in their campaign against political violence targeting women in building response mechanism to address the scourge of politically motivated violence. We therefore call for our structures to be more energetic, radical and militant as we engage the bigger struggles ahead.

We dismiss with contempt calls by the ZANU PF politburo which is insisting on having elections being held this year and we declare that any election to come should be held under a genuine constitution written by the people of Zimbabwe.

We resolve to be at the center of the struggles for social, political and economic transformation and will intensify in all fronts to ensure that young people have access to free education, free healthcare, housing, and many other social needs. We therefore call upon the government of Zimbabwe to urgently address the plight of the civil servants who constitute the bulk of the country’s working class.

The NCA Youth Assembly will continue working with other progressive forces locally and regionally. Like minded organisations like the Young Communist League of South Africa, South Africa Students Congress (SASCO) and Swaziland National Union of Students. We take this opportunity to demand the immediate release of jailed student leader Maxwell Dlamini, who was arrested by the dictatorial monarchy of King Mswati on the 12th of April this year. We hereby denounce the iron-rule style of Mswati and call upon the people of Swaziland to remain resolute and united and fight until Mswati is toppled.

We re-affirm Section 7 of the Zimbabwe Peoples Charter adopted at the People’s Convention on the 9th of February 2008, as the strategic goal of the youth of Zimbabwe and that everything we do should be directed towards attainment of the Peoples Charter objectives. We therefore commit to ensure that the we should re-assert and concretely programmatise the Peoples Charter as focus of the movement post the referendum. Below is Chapter 7 of the Peoples Charter

7. Youth Believing that at all given times the youth, both female and male, represent the present and the future of our country and that all those in positions of leadership nationally and locally must remain true to the fact that our country shall be passed on from one generation to the next, The People state that, in order for each generation to bequeath to the next a country that remains the epitome of hope, democracy and sustainable livelihoods, the following principles for the youth must be adhered to and respected: The youth shall be guaranteed the right to education at all levels until they acquire their first tertiary qualification.

The youth shall be guaranteed an equal voice in decision-making processes that not only affect them but the country as a whole in all spheres of politics, the national economy and social welfare. • The youth shall be guaranteed access to the right to health. The youth shall not be subject to political abuse through training regimes that connote political violence or any semblance of propaganda that will compromise their right to determine their future as both individuals and as a collective. The youth have the right to associate and assemble and express themselves freely of their own prerogative.
Issued by the National Constitutional Assembly Youth Assembly

- National Constitutional Assembly -

Female activists are perceived as prostitutes – Zimbabwe visit Feb 2011

Today we met with Glanis. She is a young women, who has been involved in political work since college and she is the founder of the organisation Institute for Young Women Development, which is working to empower young women in Zimbabwe.

From her own experience in politics and civic action, Glanis knows the challenges facing women who want to become actively involved in political and democratic processes. In Zimbabwe it is traditionally the men who become politically active, while women are expected to remain in the domestic sphere, looking after the family. Women who choose to become politically active are therefore perceived as challenging the male dominance of the political sphere, and as a tool to discredit their political credibility they are often accused as being ‘loose women’ and it is not uncommon that they are referred to as ‘prostitutes’. It happened to Glanis when she became politically active in college. She was running for the position as Secretary for Gender and Welfare in the Student Representative Council, but her fellow students branded her as a ‘prostitute’, claiming that she slept with older men in the Council to win the position.

For a Zimbabwean woman to become politically active she therefore needs to consider not only the risk of violence, rape and arrests. She also needs to be willing to take the risk of being publicly discredited by opponents as well as women and men in her local community, and she has to be prepared to face rumours and accusations directed at her gender rather than the cause she is fighting for.

Africa Contact activist, Harare, Zimbabwe

Fieldtrip Bekita – Zimbabwe visit Feb 2011

After leaving cold Copenhagen we arrived in the capital, Harare Saturday. Early morning the next day we went on a field trip. Our destination was the Bekita district 250 km south of Harare where we met up with a group of youth activists. Five activists from a youth organisation drove us there.

The authorities in Zimbabwe are not in favour of any critical discussions of the political situation and we had to consider the security of the participants. It was in fact our first priority. As a result the meeting was held outside in a carefully selected location due to the tense security situation.

We managed to bring together eight young men and women from the youth organisation – All from rural areas, where unemployment is high and information flow from the rest of the country is sparse.

When we asked them what issues they are facing as political active youths in Zimbabwe, it quickly became clear that the violence perpetrated by youth militia on women during the 2008 election had marked our participants deeply.

The first thing one of the women informed us about was that women who want to engage in politics are restrained in various ways. She told us how there is a constant fear of violence and rape against women activists who want to participate in political discussions.

Another woman told us about the challenges that women who wants to get a job are struggling with. One of the activists we travelled with kindly translated and explained:
”If a woman wants to get a proper job, it is expected that she pays the employee by being his mistress or sleeping with him”.
I think these two explanations are a good reflection of the situation that many Zimbabwean women face. It made me realise that being politically active is not just a question of risking being raped or tortured. These women are also constantly faced with expectations rooted in society on how they ought to behave. Expectations that reflect a view on women being subjects rather than individuals with opinions and a wish to provide for herself.

Africa Contact activist, Harare, Zimbabwe