Female electorate fenced out of party structures

Until there is a paradigm shift on how women measure their worth and their counterparts on the political scale, they will remain cannon fodders for politicians. They will continue to swell the numbers at rallies, to constitute the biggest number of voters

AYEAR before elections in Zimbabwe and probably elsewhere, is a very interesting period. This is the period when political parties, civic organisations and other supporting institutions suddenly wake up from a deep slumber, dust their party manifestos and go back to the people for courtship in anticipation for yet another vote.

At grassroots level, wards and villages become a hive of activity when day-and-night meetings are held to restructure and spruce up party structures. Four-wheel drive vehicles laden with trinkets and regalia emblazoned with party colours criss-cross the rugged country terrain to rekindle relations between the electorate and aspiring candidates.

The same hype is created by the top leadership as they rush from one panel to the other, duck in and out of meetings to strategise and vet candidates for elections. In each of the panel, debates and discussions are held on what went wrong in the previous elections, while mapping the way forward.

The same actions are repeated over the years and have almost become an election template. Suffice to say, the same repeated events will see women across political parties share grief and rejection, when they are elbowed out of powerful positions within party structures as the election mood hits feverish pitch. And certainly the 2018 harmonised elections will not be an exception if events on the ground are anything to go on.

It will be more of the same unless women decide to form a united front to push their counterparts through moral, financial support and capacity building. Angling for positions in preparation for 2018 elections has already started across political parties and it is pointing to the same narrative, where women will represent a minuscule number of powerful positions within their political parties despite their numerical significance across.

It is known that women constitute a huge percentage of grassroots support and registered voters across the country. Statistics show that women make the bulk of registered voters with 52,48 percent of those having registered to vote in the 2013 elections, thus constituting a formidable constituency that could have determined the outcome of that election.

Women constituted a large percentage of voters in 2013 and yet all major political parties, MDC-T and the ruling ZANU-PF, did not ensure that a higher number of female candidates registered with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to contest during the sitting of the Nomination Court.

The numerical size of registered women has not translated into significant positions in the party structures.

Some of the challenges include physical and sexual violence, use of money in vote buying and disenfranchisement of women at primary level when parties focus more on competing for powerful posts rather than gender equality. Social stigma and reinforcement of gender stereotypes, where women are not considered to be competitive in politics — have worked against the ascendancy of women.

Political parties are primarily maledominated and women are socially discriminated in social processes, making it difficult to for them to penetrate party systems, which for long have been treated as “boys clubs”.

The “boys club” mentality is clearly shown in the decision by MDC-T party leader Morgan Tsvangirai to appoint two male vice-presidents, Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri, at a time when other stakeholders felt Thokozani Khupe was sufficient to play the role.

Even during the so called grand coalition signing ceremony, Khupe was nowhere near the high table, which was largely dominated by men. As it stands, it is not clear if she still possesses the same powers vested in her two colleagues — Chamisa and Mudzuri — because she has literally disappeared from political limelight.

The systematic lack of women representation has extended to the newly formed opposition parties. In the then Joice Mujuru led Zimbabwe People First, only a small percentage of women, including Margaret Dongo, had top positions, while the majority were mere cardholders and “morale boosters” who would gyrate and sing at party gatherings.

Following Mujuru’s decision to co-form another party, Zimbabwe National People First, after she was booted from ZimPF, many thought that a significant proportion of women would eventually find a home to further their political aspirations, but alas, that was not to be.