By Vusumuzi Sifile
MORE than 100 placard-waving feminists on Friday confronted the signatories to the power-sharing deal, demanding an end to the delayed implementation of an all-inclusive government by more than a month, causing “unnecessary suffering to ordinary people”.
As indications began emerging that the three principals — President Robert Mugabe, and MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara — and their teams were still far from agreeing on the allocation of ministries, the feminists demanded an immediate explanation. Under the banner of the Feminist Political Education Project (FePEP) the activists succeeded in getting audience with the chief negotiators from the three parties and members of the facilitation team.
First to address them was Zanu PF’s Nicholas Goche, who requested an appointment for another day. He said there were “some difficulties that are coming our way, but those difficulties are certainly not insurmountable”.
MDC-M’s Professor Welshman Ncube shared the women’s concerns that the impasse over “glamorous ministries” was causing suffering to ordinary people.
Ncube told the feminists that on Thursday, they were “very, very, very close” to reaching an agreement on the outstanding ministries, saying he “would be surprised if we do not get a complete deal by the end of day today (on Thursday)”. But the talks reached a deadlock again on Friday.
Ncube, however, challenged the feminists not to blame only negotiators for the impasse, as women were also responsible, especially in the background teams.
“Some of the problems are caused by women in the background teams. I can vouch for that,” he said.
On the women’s concerns that the negotiators had not consulted widely, Ncube said inasmuch as consultations were good, they were impacting negatively on the process.
“The downside of consultation, as we have experienced, regrettably at the negotiations, every time we have said we are going to consult, we come back with hard-line no-compromise positions…” Ncube said. “Every time we adjourn to consult after making progress 10 steps and you think we are there. We come back after consultation; they take you 21 days back.”
Addressing the women, Tendai Biti, the MDC-T secretary general, said the impasse was harming ordinary people the most.
After Biti’s address, the women said they would barricade the negotiators and their principals until an agreement was reached. One of the co-ordinators of FePEP, Shereen Essof, said this had worked in Liberia, where women played a key role in influencing outcome of the talks.
Within minutes, the women had gathered placards. Among other things, the hand-written placards pleaded: “Zimbabwe is hungry; we want a cabinet today and No Deal, No Exit.” They also submitted a petition to the negotiators and the facilitation team. Among other things, the petition stressed the urgency of resolving the deadlock, saying many people were dying of hunger and struggling to survive under the current hyper-inflationary environment.
Members of Thabo Mbeki’s facilitation team, former SA Local Government Minister, Sydney Mufamadi and Reverend Frank Chikane, the director general in the Presidency assured the activists Mbeki had received their concerns and that these would be considered.
Another FePEP member, Janah Ncube, told The Standard that “the facilitation team assured us that Mbeki had received our concerns and was doing something about them”. Tsvangirai and Mutambara also spoke to the women separately. The contents of the discussions were not immediately available.
The feminists are also demanding that 50% of ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries and ambassadors should be women. They claim this is what “gender parity” referred to in the Global Political Agreement meant.
“The agreement clearly provides for gender parity, which means we share the positions 50-50,” Janah Ncube said. This is also contained in the SADC protocol signed by southern African leaders in August.”
Published in The Standard on 19 Nov. 2008
First to address them was Zanu PF’s Nicholas Goche, who requested an appointment for another day. He said there were “some difficulties that are coming our way, but those difficulties are certainly not insurmountable”.
MDC-M’s Professor Welshman Ncube shared the women’s concerns that the impasse over “glamorous ministries” was causing suffering to ordinary people.
Ncube told the feminists that on Thursday, they were “very, very, very close” to reaching an agreement on the outstanding ministries, saying he “would be surprised if we do not get a complete deal by the end of day today (on Thursday)”. But the talks reached a deadlock again on Friday.
Ncube, however, challenged the feminists not to blame only negotiators for the impasse, as women were also responsible, especially in the background teams.
“Some of the problems are caused by women in the background teams. I can vouch for that,” he said.
On the women’s concerns that the negotiators had not consulted widely, Ncube said inasmuch as consultations were good, they were impacting negatively on the process.
“The downside of consultation, as we have experienced, regrettably at the negotiations, every time we have said we are going to consult, we come back with hard-line no-compromise positions…” Ncube said. “Every time we adjourn to consult after making progress 10 steps and you think we are there. We come back after consultation; they take you 21 days back.”
Addressing the women, Tendai Biti, the MDC-T secretary general, said the impasse was harming ordinary people the most.
After Biti’s address, the women said they would barricade the negotiators and their principals until an agreement was reached. One of the co-ordinators of FePEP, Shereen Essof, said this had worked in Liberia, where women played a key role in influencing outcome of the talks.
Within minutes, the women had gathered placards. Among other things, the hand-written placards pleaded: “Zimbabwe is hungry; we want a cabinet today and No Deal, No Exit.” They also submitted a petition to the negotiators and the facilitation team. Among other things, the petition stressed the urgency of resolving the deadlock, saying many people were dying of hunger and struggling to survive under the current hyper-inflationary environment.
Members of Thabo Mbeki’s facilitation team, former SA Local Government Minister, Sydney Mufamadi and Reverend Frank Chikane, the director general in the Presidency assured the activists Mbeki had received their concerns and that these would be considered.
Another FePEP member, Janah Ncube, told The Standard that “the facilitation team assured us that Mbeki had received our concerns and was doing something about them”. Tsvangirai and Mutambara also spoke to the women separately. The contents of the discussions were not immediately available.
The feminists are also demanding that 50% of ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries and ambassadors should be women. They claim this is what “gender parity” referred to in the Global Political Agreement meant.
“The agreement clearly provides for gender parity, which means we share the positions 50-50,” Janah Ncube said. This is also contained in the SADC protocol signed by southern African leaders in August.”
Published in The Standard on 19 Nov. 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment