“I HAVE long given up on active politics,” Gertrude Sidambe, a 36-year-old member of one of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, tells IPS. When female members of the ruling Zanu PF party complained last month about political violence as male members chose brawn over brains to solicit for positions, the party’s national secretary for women’s affairs Mabel Chinomona advised that they enter the punch-and-insult battlefield and “fight” like everyone else. The violence has pushed women further away from the bruising contests. Yet it has become another reminder of the country’s commitments — or lack thereof — toward gender inclusivity and parity and the conditions women face in their aspirations for political office. “At one time I was confident my many years in the forefront would culminate in running for public office but that never happened, and that’s not because I did not try. Everyone appeared to think men could do a better job,” Sidambe says. She made the comments at a time when Zimbabwe’s political parties are engaged choosing representatives for positions that range from district coordinating committees to local councils and by-elections for vacant legislative seats. Sidambe’s disillusion with party politics is not unusual or isolated. The main opposition MDC Alliance (MDC-A) has also not been spared. The party has put in motion internal processes to elect representatives who will contest for vacant parliamentary and local council positions once the government lifts the moratorium on by-elections because of coronavirus fears. Last month, government was taken to court by female aspiring candidates challenging the indefinite suspension of the by-elections. The court action is being supported by the Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE), a local NGO lobbying for the equal representation of women in public leadership positions. According to WALPE, there are 35 vacant parliamentary seats, while 55 local council wards are yet to be filled and the suspension of the by-elections “violates people’s rights to be represented whoever they want”. Meanwhile, MDC-A prospective female candidates have complained of being sidelined, amid developments that male candidates were running in positions that had previously been agreed to be reserved for a female candidate. “It has been normalised that women are mobilisers for male candidates, but there comes a time when you become tired and just quit after you ask yourself ‘what’s in it for me?’” Sidambe says, highlighting a recurring motif each time the Zimbabwe’s political parties prepare for elections. Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, an opposition legislator in Zimbabwe, says there are no binding codes of conduct within political parties regarding gender parity and this has allowed the pushing of women to the periphery of political participation. “There are simply no internal party rules that ensure political parties live up to their proclamations for women to be part of leadership,” Misihairabwi-Mushonga tells IPS. “Political parties are operating without rules.
