Women cry foul over proportional representation
Nothando Nkomo and Providence Moyo
BULAWAYO – Bulawayo women have expressed concerns over Amendment No. 2 which extended the proportional representation of women in Parliament by a further two terms. The women castigated the Bill for perpetuating inequality in the politics by effectively disenfranchising women from contesting in constituencies.
Speaking during a meeting held in Bulawayo under the theme “Enhancing and promoting women’s participation in democracy and governance which was hosted by Women’s Institute for Leadership and Development (WILD), the women described the extension of proportional representation by two more terms as a fatal blow to gender equality.
The women argued that proportional representation stifles them while promoting gender inequality in political spaces as it does not ensure robust participation of women in electoral processes in the sense that it renders women as people who are waiting for men to fight battles on their behalf.
Prisca Dube, a lawyer at Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights conceded that proportional representation falls far short of enabling women’s meaningful participation in politics. She contended that it should have gone a step further to embrace councillors rather than favour only women in Parliament given that councillors are the ones who are on the ground with the people and are therefore better placed to appreciate the challenges communities face on a daily basis.
“Amendment Bill No. 2 has loopholes because it does not consider the local councilors who are always on the ground with the people, experiencing challenges together with citizens hence for it to make sense it should have a clause that embraces local authority,” she said.
Dube added that the quota system poses a huge conflict of interest as most of the women accommodated in the quota system are made less effective due to lack of independence as they have to toe the line of their leaders to whom they are indebted for the proportional representation seats.
One of the delegates, a member of one the main political parties, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, highlighted that proportional representation is an indirect way of suppressing women because their leaders are bound to sideline them in constituencies ostensibly to allocate them proportional representation seats.
“This is a cunning way of suppressing us because through this system, they are going to stop us from contesting for constituencies which will be left for our male counterparts to fight it out among themselves,” she said.
Proportional representation as enshrined in section 124 of the 2013 Constitution states that a total of sixty parliamentary seats shall be set aside for women.
