By Ruzvidzo Mupfudza
In a political environment where women in politics have scored a major success by having more than 150 female candidates filing their nomination papers to contest the March 29 elections, surpassing the 30% quota women support groups were lobbying for, media coverage of these contenders has, however, remained uneven.
The gender bias that has seen male politicians garnering the lion’s share of media coverage as well as positions of influence in the past has tended to characterise the representation of the voices of political candidates in the current campaign in the media. This is largely a result of the fact that the run up to the March 29, 2008 harmonised elections has been largely characterised by the politics of personalities rather than issues.
Needless to say, in the fierce battle to win the hearts and minds of the voting populace, parties have tended to focus more on disparaging one another and on efforts to have an upper hand in the popularity realm rather than address salient issues. The media in turn has tended to get sucked into these battles mesmerised by the President Robert Mugabe Zanu PF, Simba Makoni (independent) or Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC) factor.
Amidst all the personality bashing clutter has been the resilient and positive “The Women Can Do It!” campaign, the brainchild of the Women’s Trust aimed at establishing higher female representation in high ranking political decision making positions. In August 2007 the Trust held a conference in Harare to launch the initiative and issued a declaration in which supporters of the campaign made several demands, including that 50 percent of candidates for political parties are women -- and for the introduction of proportional representation.
The campaign was motivated by the fact that while women constitute 52 percent of the population in Zimbabwe, they hold only 19 percent of cabinet posts, 17 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament and 36.6 percent in the senate, according to figures from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development. They also hold 12 percent of seats in urban councils, and 28 percent of those in rural councils.
On 28 February 2008, the Zimbabwe Independent Online posted a story headlined, “Women surpass 30% quota.” The report was based on figures from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which revealed an increase in women candidates who submitted their nomination papers from both the ruling Zanu PF and opposition parties. The report stated that Zanu PF would field 78 female candidates, while the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC faction would have 40 and the Arthur Mutambara camp would have 39 contesting the legislative and council polls.
The “Women Can Do It!” campaign had therefore scored some success as Luta Shaba, Women’s Trust Executive Director, told the Independent: “The campaign has received overwhelming response from women. We have surpassed the 30% quota in the number of female candidates who will stand in the coming elections…In previous elections, the list of female candidates had become predictable, but after our campaign we have new-comers who will be contesting in this year’s elections.”
She however lamented the fact that no female candidates were contesting for the highest position in the country, the presidency. This could very well be the reason why media coverage has not be extended as intensely and greater levels for those women contesting for senatorial, house of assembly and council positions.
This is the feeling of Angela Makumire, of the Federation of African Media Women Zimbabwe (FAMWZ), who, speaking from her own personal assessment, said, “I don’t think female candidates are getting enough coverage. Perhaps if there were female candidates vying for the presidency they would be getting the same attention that is being given to male presidential candidates.”
Makamure cited the scenario in the 2002 presidential elections where Edna Madangure of the People Progressive Party got ample coverage due to her participation in the race at the time.
“In this election campaign, however, the majority of the female candidates are being overlooked,” observed Makamure, adding that, “You only see women frequently featuring in the Women Can Do It! advertisement campaign, and the other adverts currently running.”
However, the campaign itself and the initiative by political parties to achieve this should be seen in the broader context where Zimbabwe has a National Gender Policy one of whose key objectives is to “create equal opportunities for women and men in decision making in all areas and all levels.” Zimbabwe is also signatory to the SADC Declaration on Gender and Equality assented to by Heads of State and Governments in 1997 in which equal representation in member states should have been at least 30 percent by 2005.
This was also buttressed by the African Union Protocol on African Women’s Rights, adopted in July 2003 at summit held in Mozambique and came into effect on 25 December 2006.
Thus what is happening in Zimbabwe should not be seen in isolation. Indeed, one should also bear in mind The Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which encapsulates the right of women to hold political office and to participate in policy making and hold all levels of government office and the right to participate in political parties and independent bodies that look at the welfare of communities.
It is in this respect that the Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Oppah Muchinguri marked the International Women’s day on 8 March 2008 with the celebratory assertion that: “Zimbabwe has made remarkable progress in institutionalising the gender budgeting initiative. Our engagement with the Ministry of Finance has resulted in the 2007 Call Circular [which] mandated all line ministries to have gender consideration in their ministerial bids… Government established and trained gender focal persons in gender budgeting with the main responsibility of ensuring that their ministries budgets are gender sensitive. This has resulted in the increment of the ministry budget allocation from 24 percent in 2007 to 98 percent in 2008 which the ministry had requested.” (The Saturday Herald, “Remarkable progress in gender equity programme’, 8 March 2008).
But it is interesting to note that in this particular edition of the 9 political stories that were covered, the only one covering women in politics was this one covering the minister’s speech. The rest covered male politicians, particularly from Zanu PF castigating Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dabengwa. The paper’s city.com did however contain an article concerning women’s issues, written by Beatrice Tnhodzayi in her “Let’s Talk about Aids” column. Unfortunately, exactly how female candidates are mainstreaming gender and development issues in their campaign programmes, if they are at all, remains glaringly absent from mainstream media coverage.
Commenting on the strides made by women in their advocacy for greater representation in key decision making positions, since they constitute 52 percent of the population, University of Zimbabwe political science and commentator, Dr Joseph Kurebwa, said that it was a solid and credible argument.
“The argument is very sound, seeing that women constitute slightly more than half of the total population of the nation. The idea that there should be a corresponding representation holds water,” Dr Kurebwa noted.
He however pointed out that there were stereotypes engendered by societal norms hat work against what would otherwise be a powerful argument and rationale. Dr Kurebwa’s observation gains paramount when one considers the fact that the only female candidate who garners major coverage in the state media is vice president Joice Mujuru largely because of the office she bears and her position in the party, but even then the major highlights of that coverage has been the denial of her links to Simba Makoni (The Herald on Saturday, 28 March 2008, “Zanu PF launches election Manifesto” and “Top Politburo members deny links to Makoni.”
Female candidates and members in Zanu PF present at the launch are relegated to colourful pictorial representations where they are depicted dancing and ululating, while the Zanu PF Women’s League’s portrayal is limited to their stereotyped praise- singing role: “The Women’s League shouted President Mugabe’s totem and chanted slogans praising his leadership qualities and branding him a God- given gift.’”
Indeed, on Tuesday night, 12 March 2008, the national broadcaster, ZBC carried a story on its main bulletin in which vice president Mujuru was at Juru Growth Point, Murehwa, where she claimed to be representing all women, but only in so far as women were responsible for shaping the lives and well- being of men. This is significant in the light that if gender mainstreaming essentially means strengthening women and men’s active involvement in capabilities and contributions in political, development and economic issues, the role of women in politics should also transcend roles assigned to them through socialisation in a patriarchal society.
Makamure noted wryly that, “Maybe in Zanu PF, the only candidate who is getting a lot of coverage is Mai Mujuru but not the other candidates. Of course, Mai Mutinhiri was on TV on the other day, but the point is you can actually count them (female candidates) on your hand.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Lydia Mavhengere, the Women’s Trust Campaign Manager of the “Women Can Do It!” initiative.
Said Mavhengere: “Personally, I still feel that there is a lot that can be done. If you look at mainstream politics, we were hoping that women would be accorded more space, because if they not in the news, in the public domain, you really wonder how they are coping with their campaigns.”
The concern is valid. Patience Zirima’s story in The Herald (& March 2008), “Southern Africa Tops in Gender Equity – Expert” noted that “gendered inequalities persist in economic empowerment, caused by the absence of economic opportunities for women, lack of access to economic resources and lack of access to education and support services.” The reporter’s expert was a high ranking female voice, Laeticia Mukurasi, the African Development Bank Gender Specialist interviewed with the International Women’s day in mind.
To its credit the story did highlight that, “In a positive move to boost gender equality, more than 30 percent of candidates for the 2008 harmonised elections in Zimbabwe are women, and this may increase the number of women voted into Parliament. Ensuring equal representation of women in decision-making positions is important to economic empowerment as women are best placed to articulate their own needs and concerns.” But none of the female candidates in question were given a voice which would have allowed them to articulate these needs and concerns.
This failure was aptly captured by a woman who runs a hair salon in Kaguvi Street, in Harare, Gay Moyo, who lamented, “As a woman I think we are not being adequately represented. The female candidates running for office should come out and tell us what they stand for as individuals, as human beings, not as mothers, daughters or aunts.”
This was quite clearly something she felt strongly about, for she added, “As women we should not wait to be promoted by men, or wait for them to accord us space. We also want to be presidents. We should stand up and say we are coming and we standing for this or that.”
But political patronage still has strong tentacles in political processes in this country. While the Convention on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) advocates for the rights of women, girls, minorities and the disadvantaged, aptly echoing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, where the women’s right to participation in governance is crucial, it is important to note the dynamics of both inter and intra- party struggles. Lucia Makamure in The Independent noticed this and highlighted that despite their being such a high number of female candidates in the 2008 polls, “both the ruling party and opposition parties fielded women in traditionally no-win areas where they had little support. Zanu PF, which enjoys much support in the rural areas, fielded 10 women in urban constituencies, while the MDC had nine women in rural constituencies.”
In Harare on 24 February 2008, while Addressing a rally in Hatfield, Mvurachena Senate candidate, Miriam Chikukwa put the party first urging Zanu-PF supporters to remain faithful to the party and avoid going into the forthcoming elections divided (The Herald, 25 February 2008). But as the report noted she also, “urged women in the party to support each other and desist from working against female candidates representing the party. ‘As women we should work hard. Let us work together and avoid pulling each other down. We should work with a 'We can do it' mind to succeed in these elections,’ she said.”
However, yet again the article does not go beyond speech reporting and tackling some of the critical issues pertaining to gender and community development, and thus setting an agenda for the politicians themselves.
The failure to rally behind concrete issues in the current climate of political acrimony could be partly to blame but it is quite obvious that there are many issues which female candidates in particular can rally around and actually offer the possibility of a socially ameliorating vision. A male columnist, ironically, Bill Saidi noted this when he wrote:
“Yes, [women] can vote today, but if anybody insists they are free to use that vote any way they wish, I would tell them to wash their dirty mouth with the toughest detergent imaginable. Women were the most vulnerable victims of Murambatsvina, the price blitz, the prohibitive cost of sanitary wear. Yet they turn up in huge numbers at Zanu PF rallies. Their almost hysterical ululation for every word that passes through the party leader’s lips is pathetic. The man has almost destroyed this country” (“Ladies, it's time to strut your stuff!” Sunday Opinion, The Standard).
Apart from being still at the mercy of patriarchal political scheming, prior to the current dispensation pertaining to the MDC female representation, one has to recall the strife witnessed in 2007 in that party’s Women’s League. In November 2007 Precious Shumba in the article, “Zimbabwe: MDC women crisis deepening,” wrote that: “The battle for the control of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Women' s Assembly has exposed several issues which key stakeholders have to note. Key issues that require a critical analysis include the role of the women in the MDC, the election process, the use of women by men, the use of financial resources, the 50/50 campaign, Morgan Tsvangirai’s propensity to reward those with financial muscle, lack of constitutional respect and the unfair distribution of party resources to the structures. The issues here are not necessarily linked to the women in politics. The whole issue has been narrowed down to personality differences” (AllAfricanews, 12 November 2007).
Of course, on 7 March 2008, in an interview with ZBC, the MDC- Tsvangirai spokesperson Nelson Chamisa assured the nation that the MDC was gender sensitive. The female candidates themselves are rarely heard speaking for themselves. Local businesswomen have called on women candidates to prioritise economic and social issues that affect women so that the challenges being faced in the country are addressed. (ZBC, 3 March 2008) Abigail Billy and Renee Mucherahwowa were some of the two businesswomen cited in the report, but none of the contesting female candidates were accorded an opportunity to respond to these calls and to articulate their goals.
However, it is not a story of complete bleak and doom, for while mainstream media, particularly the national entities might seem to be trapped in the vortex of the big three, some female candidates might be getting coverage in Community Group Newspapers. According to Mrs Lucia Masekesa, the National Organising Secretary of the Women’s Assembly (MDC- Tsvangirai), who is also the party’s candidate for Masvingo urban constituency, female candidates there have been receiving coverage in The Masvingo Star and the Masvingo Mirror.
She said that candidates have been and will continue to be accorded space to express their agenda, manifestos and have their profiles published in the publications.
This is a far cry from the February 2008 issue of The Standard where what was making news was the following, “Zanu PF women in $10b swindle.” The Sunday Mail of February 24, 2008 had a feature on female rangers titled, “Bold queens of the jungle’ by Roselyn Sachiti. There were no features on aspiring political female candidates.
But as Dr. Kurebwa noted, the full utilisation of the access to media allowed under the Zimbabwe electoral Commission guidelines that were recently gazetted is a noble idea that would serve to boost the profile and image of female candidates.
“Exposure would be very important,” said Kurebwa, lamenting however that, “The only problem is that this is only done on the eve of the elections, such that it would not have the desired impact of entering the psyches of ordinary people and thus helping change norms and stereotypes.
On the system of introducing quotas for female representation initiated by all parties, political analyst, Dr Kurebwa, noted that while this was a welcome development, it did not however go beyond the threshold that would allow for greater female representation. Indeed, it is the limitations of the quota system that Moyo lamented, for it is at the onus and behest of male patronage. Dr Kurebwa said a more effective implementation strategy would be one that is legally enshrined in the constitution.
“There should be some legal or constitutional threshold of say 40 percent which would compel parties to have greater female presentation because the current quota system will only see them ranging between 25 and 30 percent,” said Kurebwa.
No doubt such a legislation would go a long way not only terms of female representation, but the greater the numbers of women vying for key positions in politics, the more the media would be forced to change the way the media deals with them. Dr Kurebwa noted that there was even in the average women representatives currently vying for positions, one observed a genuine zeal to serve the female constituency and community at large, and once such women were accorded the space to articulate themselves, they did so commendably well.
As Mrs Moyo noted, “We need more than adverts. Those who decide to stand on our behalf should know and understand why they are going to parliament and avoid being overwhelmed by the concerns and interests of the men in their parties. They should know that they are also standing on our behalf.”
Lucia Masekesa at least seems to understand this.
“As MP it is our duty to go and talk with the people, for without the people there is no development. My duty would be to take the wishes and needs of the people to parliament and work with the relevant ministries to advocate for development.”
Masekesa herself feels that there is need for greater education and training of women so that they learn to put value to the roles and potential in society. She also said that teachers were valuable since every member in society could not claim to have gotten where they are without the aid and nurturing hand of teachers and such they needed to be treated with more respect and paid decent wages. Of course, she added, the fight for women’s rights and defending those rights were central to her vision.
The vision and hope expressed by female candidates like Masekesa has not been accorded enough space in the mainstream media, and if there are lessons to be learnt from the period under consideration, January through to March, is that the mainstream media still has a long way to go in transcending the limitations of patriarchal stereotypes. Indeed, the politics of Big Men and patronage has tended to hinder greater advocacy in the media, where the media actually plays the role of agenda setting and informing as well as inspiring people to seek alternatives to the current status quo.
As Dr Fay Cheung succinctly put it: “We are our own liberators. Leadership can be learnt. One should be humble and say I have to learn this and find out as much as I can.” This is wisdom that female candidates participating in the 2008 elections and the media that ought to be covering them more extensively could benefit from. Quite clearly, more needs to be done in terms of gender mainstreaming and raising awareness as well as consciousness in those who would bring about change as politicians or as member of the Fourth estate who bear witness to such innovators.
