Women Demand More

by Vusumuzi Sifile
The Standard, Saturday 27 September 2008

WOMEN’S rights activists want to add another sticking point to the contentious issue of cabinet appointments: they are demanding that key ministries should be headed by women.

They also want women to head at least 30% of the 31 ministries created under the power-sharing deal between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations.
This however could be a shot in the dark as all the parties are said to have completed their most likely line-ups for different portfolios. Most of the posts are held by men. Fewer women that are being proposed were elected into the two houses of Parliament.
Among the organisations pushing for the deal is the Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU) and the Feminists Political Education Project (FePEP). They say this is "not too far fetched" as it is in line with a protocol adopted by Sadc heads of state in South Africa last month.
Officials from the two organisations confirmed they were pushing for more women to be appointed to Cabinet and for the appointment of women to key ministries. They however could not be drawn into divulging the names in their proposals.
WiPSU director, Cleopatra Ndlovu said: "Right from the talks, the representation of women left a lot to be desired. Everything was telling a male story, even the picture. And now we are talking about cabinet, this is where issues of power between men and women are going to be demonstrated."
She said the agreement makes a commitment to involve women, but there is no suggestion how this would be carried out.
"Having read the agreement, it talks about women in a way that the principals acknowledge women have to be put in strategic positions. But we don’t see the actual action plan to involve women. It appears they just talk about women, just to appease us."
Theresa Mugadza, a co-ordinator of FePEP, said they had "engaged with the negotiators at various times about the inclusion of women".
"We have written to them, but there’s not been any formal response," Mugadza said.
Asked about their proposals, Mugadza said: "I cannot start giving you names now."
But sources in the women’s movement said Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga — who ironically is one of the FePEP co-ordinators and took part in the negotiations that led to the power sharing deal — tops the list of the feminists’ suggestions. Her name has also appeared in a number of possible cabinet line-ups currently being circulated.
According to our sources, some feminists want Misihairabwi-Mushonga to head either the Ministry of Industry and Commerce or Regional Integration and International Trade, which are understood to have been given to her formation. The proposal is based on Misihairabwi-Mushonga’s background as a former chairperson of the Parliamentary public accounts committee and MDC’s shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs.
"We look forward to the appointment of women to strategic ministries such as foreign affairs, home affairs, defence, local government, finance, trade, health and education just to name a few — something like what they have in South Africa," added Mugadza.
Section 20 of the agreement signed on September 15 acknowledges "the need for gender parity, particularly the need to appoint women in strategic Cabinet posts".
The FePEP, through Mugadza, even suggested how the ministries would be distributed.
"For avoidance of doubt, out of the 31 ministerial positions, 15 should be women and of the 15 deputy ministers, 8 should be women. Of the 15 cabinet posts Zanu PF has, at least seven ought to be women; of the 13 cabinet posts that MDC-T has, at least seven ought to be women and of the three seats MDC has, at least one has to be a woman. Of the eight deputies Zanu PF appoints, four have to be women, the six MDC led by Tsvangirai appoints, three ought to be women and the one deputy of the MDC led by Prof. Mutambara must be a woman."
But Luta Shaba, the director of Women’s Trust —a Harare based organisation said: "For us, what is more critical however is to have an institutional mechanism to oversee the commitment to issues of gender representation. It does not matter what percentage we have, if there is nobody to oversee the implementation it won’t work. It is not about numbers, it is about walking our talk."