ZACC addresses gender impact of corruption
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission ( ZACC) has shown tremendous determination to take the fight against corruption to a higher level.
PUBLIC education is being intensified as one of the key interventions to prevent corruption. The commission is targeting to educate not less than two million people this year.
Raising anti-corruption awareness has been prioritised because most people in Zimbabwe claim to have no knowledge about what really constitutes corruption and what they should do after coming across such acts.
The recent launch of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy by President Mnangagwa witnessed the participation of people from different walks of life, who gave their views on how they want corruption to be fought.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy has prioritised raising public awareness throughout the country and across all age groups.
It further suggests that Zimbabwe can only realise success in fighting the scourge when women and the youth deliberately take a strong stance in combating corruption.
In terms of Zimbabwean population statistics, women and the youth constitute the majority.
In this regard, the commission decided to partner Gender Links Zimbabwe Chapter in raising anti-corruption awareness, starting with women entrepreneurs.
The first workshop was held at local hotel in Harare on September 15, 2020, in which 58 women entrepreneurs drawn from 13 local authorities attended.
The women were part of nearly 400, scattered across 92 local authorities, duly registered with Gender Links and have received training in business management skills.
Gender Links had arranged this workshop after realising that women entrepreneurs were facing challenges due to the impact of Covid19 restrictions, and the pandemic itself.
Gender Links invited ZACC to facilitate the workshop after receiving numerous complaints on corruption, which was threatening the viability of women’s business projects in the country.
It came out clearly during deliberations that the high prevalence of corruption, coupled with Covid-19 restrictions, was impacting negatively on the growth and development of the small-scale businesses that most of the women are running.
The women entrepreneurs continue to face a myriad of challenges due to corrupt practices in business.
They are extorted by unscrupulous individuals who are employed at various public service points.
The women entrepreneurs are finding it difficult to engage different authorities when they want to acquire business permits/operating licences.
They struggle to access loans to bolster their businesses or even transport to ferry goods to their business premises without being asked to pay bribes.
The women claim that the issuance of such documents or services is deliberately delayed or totally denied unless they pay bribes.
They highlighted that those who fell victim to corruption had to pay using the money they had either borrowed or received as capital for their proposed business ventures.
The corrupt practices have had a ripple effect.
Women cannot stamp their authority on the market because their orders and stocks remain small in quantity and variety despite having to pay monthly rentals and other overheads.
This scenario paints a gloomy picture on the growth and development of women’s business projects.
As if the aforesaid is not enough, the corrupt have devised weird methods of extorting women entrepreneurs through sextortion or sexual exploitation.
According to a 2019 study by Transparency International Zimbabwe, the existence and manifestation of sextortion/sexual exploitation is both a corruption typology as well as another dominant form of gender-based violence.
The research findings on Gender and Corruption Barometer show that 57 percent of women in Zimbabwe work in the informal sector, and that there is a link between the sex of a person and corruption.
These research findings clearly show that women are more vulnerable to corruption than their male counterparts, and, in most cases, males are the perpetrators.
During the discussion with ZACC officials, women said some men employed at various public service points demand sex.
Some women who would have travelled very long distances end up succumbing to these demands, after which the service is quickly availed.
The women were quite assertive that they no longer want to be abused and demeaned by corrupt men, and that they shall take it upon themselves to name and shame the perpetrators.
They boldly claimed that as women in business, it is either they have to part with their hard-earned money and business stock or forced to indulge in sex.
This level of corruption has reached alarming levels.
The women requested ZACC to make serious interventions as they cannot easily give up their entrepreneurial activities and stay at home.
They bemoaned the negative effect of the pandemic on their businesses as they observed the regulations, and, like any other entity classified outside essential services, they had to close shop.
In this regard, women entrepreneurs found themselves counting their losses as their products had no takers.
For some who chose to trade from home, their efforts came to naught due to corruption by suspected law enforcement agencies who demanded huge bribes for them to continue operating.
Either way, they lost value.
After relaxation of the lockdown, some of these entrepreneurs neither have capital nor the knowledge and skills to revive their businesses.
Those who want to renew various licences or negotiate business loans have to face the corrupt officers who are waiting to prey on them. In Botswana, women have been found to be effective anti-corruption fighters than men, and most women in leadership positions have proved to be less corrupt than their male counterparts.
It is from this standpoint that the commission will roll out a robust anti-corruption education targeting women as a measure to reduce the prevalence of corruption in the country.
The commission is confident that women have the capacity to socialise their children to abstain from corruption.
The few men who live on corruption will then be quickly exposed for investigation and prosecution.
ZACC assured the participants of its continued support by responding quickly to women’s concerns on combating corruption in Zimbabwe.
The commission undertook to work with Gender Links in all its future workshops, while women entrepreneurs agreed to assist in establishing village or localised integrity committees.
This structure will assist in educating the public and expose the corrupt at local levels.
It forms a strong pillar in the early warning and rapid response to corruption.
Ultimately, the concept will create uncomfortable zones for the corrupt and this is believed to be one of the most effective ways of preventing corruption.