Zimbabwe: The role of women in the 2000 Zimbabwe Election

July 2000

Despite the sterling efforts of Zimbabwean women to end marginalisation from the corridors of power things are far from moving in the right direction. That is, if events in the run up to the June 24 - 25 parliamentary elections are anything to go by.

Zimbabwe's cabinet has 30 ministers including President Mugabe and his two vice presidents. Of these, only six are women. And out of the 14 deputy ministers only three are women. The attorney general, and the planning commissioner, both male, are also members of Zimbabwe's cabinet.

Last year members of ZANU-PF women's league threatened to boycott the party's congress unless they got assurances that women would be guaranteed representation in the top four posts of the party. They got no concessions on that score. The top four posts in the ruling party are still occupied by men.

Mavis Chidzonga an outspoken member of parliament in the last assembly and a current candidate says resistance to women's advancement in the party includes women themselves. She told IPS: ''We even have some women in the top who would rather remain the few at the top. They see themselves as the Super Breed."

There was hope that for the first time in history the number of women members in the fifth parliament would rise from the 22 of 150 chamber members in the fourth parliament. After all, in September 1997, President Robert Mugabe together with other SADC heads of states had signed a declaration on gender and development. They committed themselves to: "Ensure the equal representation of women and men in decision making of member states and SADC structures at all levels, and the achievement of at least a thirty percent target of women in political and decision making structures by year 2005."

Power sharing between women and men is among the 12 critical areas of concern outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action. The upcoming election would have provided a perfect opportunity for Zimbabwean women to lobby and achieve the target to which their head of state is bound. Expectations were high especially after the ruling party ZANU PF's 10 provinces elected 50 women to the Central Committee in accordance with an affirmative action programme adopted at its December national congress last year.

In March this year, women in opposition parties formed an organization called Women Election Network (WEN) to promote gender equality and campaign for leadership positions. At it launch in Harare, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga WEN's spokesperson said that the network would press for a quota system to ensure that women have meaningful representation in the parties. "We feel that not only have women been marginalized in elections but in opposition parties they have been marginalized in terms of leadership positions as well," she said. Misihairabwi-Mushonga is fighting for a parliamentary seat on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) ticket.