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Positions not enough for women empowerment
Harare Residents' Trust (HRT)
March 08, 2012

The Harare Residents' Trust (HRT) joins the rest of Zimbabwe and the international community in commemorating International Women's Day. This year's commemorations come at a time the HRT has made significant inroads in communities where women have demonstrated their capacity to lead from the front in the battle for improved living standards, freedom and prosperity.

The United Nations' theme for International Women's Day 2012 is 'Empower Women - End Hunger and Poverty.' As part of a long term strategy to empower women, the HRT has established a women's desk that is harnessing the energies of battle hardened women in aggressive service delivery advocacy. The women recognise their vulnerability at the hands of abusive service providers, who have for long time instilled fear in the hearts and minds of women.

It is not enough in the eyes of the HRT to have women occupying high positions in governance structures. These courageous women have to exercise real power and authority, where they determine how resources are allocated to provide essential services at community level, and advance the women's cause. Only then can the organisation celebrate real women empowerment.

At local level in the context of national politics, the City of Harare saw only five out of the 46 elected ward councilors being women. The HRT envisages a scenario where women at community level become more involved in decision making, and coming forward to demand their space in political offices, using their majority as leverage. Women are able if they put their mind to it. Women participation in national politics remains low according to some reports from various women organizations, with 10% in local government and 19.6% in Parliament.

From our experience as an organization, women have suffered the most through electricity blackouts, water shortages, disease outbreaks and other community threats, including political violence. It is women who are at the forefront of finding alternatives when there is no water and in the absence of other essential social services.

The HRT recalls how a number of women in Mbare were brutalized in 2010 and 2011 for refusing to engage in sexual intercourse with identified political actors in the Jourburg Lines. They were threatened with eviction if they refused while some were forced to sleep with identified men for their security. That should not be allowed to happen in a country where a war was waged against the brutal Smith regime.

If Zimbabwe entertains hopes of attaining peace, prosperity and development, the violent nature of our national politics have to be confronted by honest leadership that is willing to sacrifice personal interests and advance national development.

In line with the 2012 theme of empowering women- ending hunger and poverty, the HRT has intensified its demands for real women empowerment through tangibles rather than promises and pledges by the country's decision makers and policymakers.

The HRT wants to see women at community level taking an active role in influencing policies and by-laws of local authorities to ensure women and vulnerable members of society are not deprived of their freedoms and economic opportunities through enactment of anti-development policies.

Visit the Harare Residents' Trust fact sheet

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