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Focus on Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) - 10 year anniversary
September 04, 2002

Social, Economic and Legal Environment Prevailing in Zimbabwe and Impact on Lives of Women and Children
Zimbabwe has a population estimated at 12.37 million people, according to the Inter Censal Demographic Survey’s unconfirmed preliminary population estimate of 1998. Statistical information from the Central Statistical Office in 1999 puts children aged 0 – 14 years at 43% of the total population and those aged 65 years and above at 4% of the population. Women and the girl child constitute 51%. Unofficial statistics that are disputed in health and population circles put Zimbabwe’s current population growth rate at 0% as compared to 2.2% in 1992. According to the Population Census of 1992, 69% of Zimbabwe’s population is based in rural areas and 31% in urban areas. 98.8% of the population is of African origin with the major ethnic group being Shona, followed by the Ndebele, while the Tonga, Venda, Shangaan, and Kalanga comprise the rest. European, Asian and mixed race people account for the remaining 1.2%.

At Independence in 1980 the government embarked on a policy, which was based on socialist theory driven public expenditure program aimed at redressing the social and economic inequities, which existed due to Zimbabwe’s recent colonial past. The aim was to extend social services to the entire population especially basic services such as health and education. There was a corresponding move to empower blacks in order to change the racial balance through positively discriminating in favour of blacks, while at the same time advocating for racial reconciliation. However, due to the declining economic performance in 1990 the government of Zimbabwe launched the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP). The launch of the ESAP was also an integral part of the second Five Year National Development Plan of 1991 – 1995. The aim of ESAP was to arrest economic stagnation, so as to increase real incomes and lower unemployment, through trade liberalisation and deregulation.

In 1999, the successor program to ESAP was launched being the Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation (ZIMPREST). Its aim was to consolidate the progress made under ESAP in respect to economic liberalisation with macroeconomic stability. Its objective was to marry or combine economic growth with social development.

In 2000 the government decided to introduce the Millennium Economic Recovery Program (MERP), whose main goal is to restore macroeconomic stability, create an economic environment conducive to low interest rates, sustainable investment capacities, stable real incomes and poverty reduction. Its other objective was to improve budget management performance and to tackle Zimbabwe’s longstanding debt.

Thus from 1980 to 1990, government policies in respect of the economy were centred on poverty alleviation and redressing economic and social inequities. However, the opposite has resulted. ESAP failed to alleviate poverty, perhaps because of the narrow focus on the formal sector without bringing benefits to the majority of people. It should be noted that the World Bank and IMF’s official position is that structural adjustment in Zimbabwe has been successful (see Zimbabwe Human Development Report 1998, pp20 –21). Central government’s fiscal deficit for instance rose from 11.5% in 1999 to an estimated 23% in 2000. Real GDP growth declined from 3.7% in 1997 to 2.5% in 1998 and –0.2% in 1999. The annual average inflation rate was 19% in 1997, it rose sharply to 56% in 2000 and went up to 64% in 2001 and was estimated at 113% in early 2002.

Formal employment has declined, with formal sector employment falling sharply from 45.2% in 1992 to 28.2% in 1999. Between 1991 and 1996 there was a net loss of over 20 000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. A Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) study indicates that 400 companies closed down and retrenchments were made in 750 companies in the year 2000. The unemployment rate is currently estimated at around 50 to 60%. The gender desegregation of this is that in 1990, for instance, women formed 18% of those employed in the formal sector and in 1998 they formed 21.9%, a very low rate of increase. In 1998 the informal sector that is largely unregulated conversely employed an estimated 3.8 million people, accounting for about 58% of the working age population. Women constitute only a fifth of formal sector employment though they are the majority of the population, but they account for 57% of the workforce in the informal sector where they are often lowly paid and the sector is unregulated exposing women to abuse and unsafe working conditions and practices. For example, in the informal sector there is often no paid maternity leave, no protective clothing for those working with hazardous chemicals or in hazardous environments. In 1999, labour force participation figures indicated a rate of 64.5% for females compared to 78.6% for males. Women’s share in decision-making positions in the private sector and specifically in the professional and technical fields declined from 67% in 1990 to 40% in 1997. Senior women managers in the public service as at May 1999 contributed 19.7% of total management. In respect of young people, two-thirds of the unemployed are youth in the age range of 15 – 24 years.

With the shrinking of people who are formally employed, the dependency ratio has risen substantially by 37%. In the 1960s it was 5.9 people per formally employed worker and in 1997 it was 8.1% people per employed worker.

With increases in poverty levels there has been a corresponding decline in health standards. Yet from 1980 to 1984, child nutrition improved and during 1982 to 1987, the crude death rate dropped from 10.8 to 6.1. Life expectancy at birth increased from 56 years in 1980 to 61 years in 1990. The percentage of married women using family planning methods rose to 48% in 1994 from 38% ten years earlier. However, these gains have now been eroded by the decrease in financial resources to the health sector, the effects of drought, cyclone Eline and above all the impact on the health system of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

According to data used to rank countries on the basis of HIV and AIDS prevalence, Zimbabwe has the second highest adult infection rate globally with approximately 1 in 4 adults infected. The age group most affected by the virus are those between 20 – 29, 30 – 39, and 40 – 49, according to the National AIDS Co-ordination Programme (NACP). These are the most sexually active and also the most productive age groups. The number of children orphaned by AIDS was expected to reach one million by 2000. Among adolescents aged 15 – 19 years, Ministry Of Health, Child and Social Welfare, (MOHCW) data, shows that female AIDS cases outnumber male by a ratio of over 5:1. National average on HIV prevalence among women attending antenatal clinics is 30%. Due to the declining economic situation, the health delivery system has also suffered from a brain of professional staff, with estimates by the MOHCW stating that doctors and nurses are leaving the public sector to either go abroad or to the private sector at a rate of 700 per year. Thus the sector now needs 1400 more nurses and 2500 more doctors for the health delivery system to function effectively.

In respect to education, while Zimbabwe has as high literacy level compared to most countries in the region, and this was due to the socialist policies pursued in the first decade of Independence, the economic decline and policies pursued from 1990 onwards have also had some negative impact. Up to the year 2000 4741 primary schools and 1555 secondary schools were constructed. According to the Zimbabwe HDR of 1998, primary school enrolment grew from 1978 to 1997, with very rapid growth being experienced during the first four years following Independence. This initially created a crisis in the availability of trained teachers, which government responded to by introducing the Zimbabwe Integrated Teacher Education Course (ZINTEC) program. However, demand for trained teachers still outstrips the availability of the teachers. At secondary school level during the period 1980 to 2000, there was an increase in the number of girls attending school. In the 1980 class 43% were girls, and in 2000 girls made up 47% of the class.

However, the survival rate of boys is still consistently higher than girls at schools. The dropouts of girls is highest at the end of primary school and at form 3 level when girls may be diverted to motherhood and marriage due to teen pregnancies. There are also increasingly financial constraints with the re-introduction of school fees as well as increase in school levies and other ancillary charges. The inability to pay school fees is generally the most common at 38.8%. In 1996, for instance, at Form 4, girls represented 42% of the total enrolled, but in Form 6 they were only 35%. At tertiary level, women comprised half of the student body at teachers’ colleges, according to the 1998 Zimbabwe United Nations Common Country Assessment, but only 28% in technical colleges and universities. Among teachers not surprisingly, 44% of primary school teachers were women, and only 36% in secondary schools. At tertiary level, women made up 27% of the lecturing staff in teachers colleges, falling to 22% in technical colleges and 18% in universities, (excluding the University of Zimbabwe).

From a legal perspective the issue of women and children’s rights has received some attention form the government of Zimbabwe over the last twenty years. This has been in the form of legislative changes as well as at a policy level. Zimbabwe soon after Independence enacted the Legal Age of Majority Act in 1982. This law had the effect of freeing women and particularly African women from a state of perpetual minority. Thus women acquired the right to contract and to sue and be sued in their own right. They could also become guardians of their children born out of wedlock and custodians of those children born in wedlock on separation or divorce. In 1985 the Matrimonial Causes Act introduced the concept of recognising women’s indirect contributions in marriage such as child bearing, performing household chores and providing consortium to husbands. In the same year the Maintenance Act was enacted and this enabled women to sue their partners for maintenance for children born in and out of wedlock where fathers were failing in their reciprocal duty to help support their children. Wives and ex-wives could also use the legislation to sue for their own upkeep where there was need.

In 1996 the Constitution was amended to equalise the situation of citizens men and women who married foreigners so that their treatment was made uniform. Thus male Zimbabwean citizens who had thus far had the right to automatically reside in Zimbabwe with their foreign spouses and easily acquire Zimbabwean citizen, while the Constitution did not give a similar right to Zimbabwean women was changed. In addition where married Zimbabwean women had previously not been permitted to give their Zimbabwean citizenship to their children born in wedlock, the situation was changed to allow this to be possible. Further section 23 o the Constitution for the first time addressed the issue of gender discrimination in the public arena as being illegal in Zimbabwe. In the following year the customary laws of inheritance were changed to permit for the first time African widows to inherit directly from their late husbands’ estates in testate, and furthermore it equalised the position of all children to inherit equally as opposed to just the eldest son inheriting.

At the international level the government of Zimbabwe in 1993 signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and with no exceptions. It has also signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). At the regional level, Zimbabwe was a party to the SADC Declaration in 1993 wherein one of the recommendations adopted was to commit to increasing the number of women occupying decision-making positions by 30% within a five-year period.

These legislative changes and treaties have however, not resulted in women’s situation being equal with that of men in Zimbabwe at a practical level. The Constitution though amended still permits in section 23(3) gender discrimination in the private sphere as well as in the application of the personal and family laws and in the application of customary law. Customary law mainly affects Africans who live a customary way of life. This is the predominant part of the population as shown earlier looking at the percentage of the population who are African and who reside in rural areas. According to the Supreme Court decision in the case of Magaya versus Magaya SC 210/98, section 23 of the Constitution permits sex discrimination in Zimbabwe since it does not expressly forbid it. As a result, for those Africans who died prior to 1 November 1997 before the new inheritance law came into force, sons are still to be preferred as heirs over daughters.

Women’s property rights particularly in relation to rights continue to be problematic in Zimbabwe. Women have struggled to get recognition as heads of households sufficiently to be allocated land in their own rights under the resettlement programs and the Traditional Leaders Act. They are often not in the traditional leadership structures, which in terms of this law have been given powers to allocate land in communal areas. Women face problems in addition on divorce where they had during the subsistence of the marriage been living in the rural home, as the courts generally will not award this property to the wife on divorce as it is said to belong to the husband under our patriarchal system.

Women’s rights in respect of their children born in wedlock are also still weak as on divorce the law currently provides that the father is the guardian of the children. This has proved very inconvenient to women who on separation or divorce are the custodian parents and yet cannot make legal decisions on their children’s behalf or acquire important documents such as passports on behalf of their children.

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