Harare (New Ziana) -The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) is lobbying Parliament to pass an electoral law that ensures equal contribution of women and men to every dimension of life, whether private or public.
ZGC chairperson Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe said this during a meeting to reflect on gender equality which was held in the capital on Friday and which was graced by several legislators, government officials and representatives civil society organizations.
Mukahanana-Sangarwe said the low participation in key sectors despite them constituting 52 percent of the country’s population was the reason behind the lobby for the legislation.
“The commission would like to propose Constitutional amendments that will ensure gender equity. We propose the reservation of seats for women, that is, 105 seats for women and 105 seats for men,” she said.
“These can be rotated every 5 years. Alternatively, we could adopt a proportional representation electoral system in the House of Assembly like we have for the Senatorial elections.”
She added that the commission continued to note glaring gender disparities in the political sphere which are at an all-time low, especially the number of women who will be vying for positions in the forthcoming harmonized polls scheduled for August 23.
“At Presidential level, only one female candidate (8 percent) out of 12 was successful to run for the Presidential race. 70 female candidates out of 637 candidates running for the 210 National Assembly seats which is a downward trend from 14.4 percent in 2018 to 11 percent in 2023.
“At local government level results show that women constitute only 15 percent of the candidates vying for local government seats,” she said, adding that regarding management positions in the public sector, women constitute 31.8 percent of permanent secretaries, 22 percent of ambassadors, 28.9 percent of chief directors and 33 percent of directors.
Mukahanana-Sangarwe said the situation was disheartening considering that the country’s Constitution provides elaborate and explicit guarantees for promoting gender equality.
“These Constitutional provisions clearly support the equal participation of men and women in all spheres of life within Zimbabwe.
“Further, the country is party to various regional and international instruments on gender, among them, the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. All these instruments provide a framework for the government to use in ensuring the achievement of gender equality,” she said.
New Ziana
