A large number of children are regularly transported across Zimbabwe’s borders by women who are not their mothers. Credit: Michelle Chifamba/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Feb 20 2020 (IPS)

Elton Ndumiso*, a bus-conductor who works the route from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, to neighbouring South Africa, sees it all the time: Zimbabwean women travelling with three or four children, who are clearly not their own kids, and taking them across the border.

It’s a crime that most bus drivers or conductors either turn a blind eye to, or become accomplices in by assisting the women. 

Ndumiso told IPS that in many cases some bus drivers and conductors go as far as “talking to” or even bribing border officials, to allow them to let the children and women enter neighbouring countries without regular migration documents.

The practice is not a new one.

“A number of children have been transported by female smugglers to cross the border. Some of the women will be in possession of signed affidavits that claim they are the legal guardians of the children. It is difficult to prove what the intensions of the smugglers would be once they have crossed the border to South Africa,” Ndumiso told IPS.

• The Parliament of Zimbabwe notes that child trafficking is one of the greatest challenges the country is facing as a result of the prevailing economic conditions.
• And according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) — an intergovernmental United Nations agency that provides services and oversights around migration — there are a number of cases of Zimbabwean parents living in neighbouring countries who pay smugglers to reunite them with their children in their new country.

Ndumiso may not know what risks await the children after they cross the border, but he’s seen cases of children being at risk during the journey as well. He remembered a recent case of a woman who was smuggling four children across the border into South Africa and had lost one of the kids when the bus stopped for a break.

“The young child was eight years old and disappeared in the small mining town of Mvuma in Midlands Province were the bus had stopped for recess. We searched for the child but could not find her. We had to leave the woman at the nearest police and a police report was made,” Ndumiso told IPS, explaining that the woman had claimed she was transporting the children to join their parents in South Africa.

IOM told IPS that despite there being a large number of instances of child smuggling and trafficking across Zimbabwe’s porous borders, these cases still remain unknown and unreported because of the nature of the crime. 

IOM-Zimbabwe head of programmes Ana Medeiros told IPS that this was largely due to the fact that in many cases victims were afraid to speak out and tell their stories.

• The 2018 Zimbabwe Parliament Committee on Human Rights’ report states that figures about this illicit crime are unavailable.
• In the report, parliament recorded that in Zimbabwe the crime of child trafficking is difficult to establish as large amounts of money is gathered in the illegal trade to create networks around the world.
• “These are calculative syndicates who create links within the government and … world to recruit unsuspecting victims who are lured by the need to improve their lives,” read the report.

Head of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, an independent rights body in this southern African nation, Virginia Muwanigwa, told IPS that very few cases of child trafficking are addressed each year in Zimbabwe as they are difficult to trace.

“In most cases, the traffickers who pay the smugglers to transport the children along the borders are close family members who may have … affidavits and consent from parents or guardians of the children for transportation and may also pay a bribe to border officials,” she explained. 

According to IOM, smuggling is mostly prevalent on the borders of South Africa and Botswana because documents can be forged and people bribed to allow entry without proper documents.

Medeiros, however, was careful to point out that, “smugglers are not traffickers because in most cases they are paid for their service to facilitate the process of smuggling. However, in some cases they may be linked to the traffickers.” The easily porous borders means that the trafficking of children is also prevalent.

“Child trafficking cases are difficult to trace because minors are not responsible for their actions and there is a thin line between smuggling and trafficking. Trafficking is not always clear as many trafficked people may be recorded as migrants in the country of destination,” Medeiros told IPS.

And Medeiros told IPS that when it comes to cases of child trafficking, usually trusted people like church and family members recruited children with promised work or education outside the country where they either ended up in domestic servitude or as sex salves.

“As a result of the nature of the crime, the component of confidentiality when investigating the issues of child trafficking and lack of knowledge on the crime of human trafficking, many families and children fall victim to trafficking, particularly with people who are close to them who are paid by traffickers to recruit young children,” Medeiros told IPS.

IOM is currently supporting Zimbabwe with capacity building and training programmes to educate people on the crime of human trafficking.

“IOM has supported the government through the Ministry of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare and Civil Society Organisations in providing information through promotional materials such as flyers, banners, T-shirts, road-shows throughout the country’s provinces to educate people on trafficking,” Medeiros told IPS.

In addition, the U.N. agency also shelters victims of trafficking, also providing them counselling.

“At the shelters victims receive counselling and share their stories on how they ended up being smuggled or trafficked,” Medeiros added.

The United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons in Zimbabwe says it also provided more than $ 750,000 in assistance for anti-trafficking programmes covering victim services, awareness and referrals, aligning legislation and building mutual capacity.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ), which actively supports the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 8 of decent work and economic growth, has focused much of its work on eliminating modern slavery. It, however, acknowledges that globally the legal system has failed to put an end to trafficking and that new laws are needed to protect citizens from this.

“The legal system can be the driver for change — so let’s use the instruments already in place — the law firms that are willing to drive change. Initiate any new laws/programmes not as a marketing add-on but a business norm and a business imperative. We need rule of law and safety of citizens in place — civilised society cannot exist without the rule of law in place,” GSN states on its website.

Muwanigwa too wants to see stronger laws in place to protect Zimbabwe’s children.

“There is need for legislation reform as very few cases of child-smuggling or trafficking in persons are investigated. Resource constraints are also the major drawback when it comes to issues of human trafficking in Zimbabwe,” Muwanigwa told IPS.

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

** Writing with Nalisha Adams in Bonn, Germany

Excerpt:

Casual workers in Zimbabwe usually work for long hours without safety clothing. Labour unions say that many employees are hiring people as casual staff to avoid providing benefits. Credit: Michelle Chifamba/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Aug 12 2014 (IPS)

Ethel Maziriri, 27, holds an Honours Degree in Social Work from the University of Zimbabwe, but instead of working in her chosen profession, she works as a cashier in one of the country’s leading clothing retail company. And it’s not by choice.

Maziriri, who graduated in 2010, has been employed as a casual worker at the store for the past 12 months.

In a country that is reeling from a liquidity crisis and a crumbling economy, company closures and downsizing have forced many into unemployment here.

She earns 80 dollars each fortnight, for working 10-hour days. But the working conditions are less than ideal.

Maziriri told IPS that most of the workers at the company are causal workers, employed on temporary contracts for six weeks at a time. She says that as contract workers they have to be very cautious to avoid their contracts being terminated prematurely without any wages or benefits.

“At work one has to be very cautious because if money or clothes go missing in the shop, everyone on the shift will have to pay for the damages and have their contracts terminated,” Maziriri said.

But she’s more concerned about earning money rather than the unfair working conditions here.

“I do not think it is necessary for a contract worker to join a labour union and I do not have any money for subscriptions to pay the union. I treasure my job and if am dismissed I will just go home and wait until I get another one,” she said.

But the Federation of Food and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe (FFWUZ), a union which represents more than 50,000 members in the food processing industry, says the “casualisation of labour” is leading to a new form of exploitation here.

“A new form of labour exploitation has erupted as employers prefer to hire short-term contract workers to escape from the costs incurred by permanent workers,” Gift Maoneka, FFWUZ paralegal officer, told IPS.

He said that since January, more than six companies have retrenched and that most industries were retrenching at least 450 workers a week.

“Most of the companies are abusing the retrenchment board in doing away with permanent workers and the law does not provide an appeal against retrenchment,” Maoneka said.

FFWUZ says that Zimbabwe’s crumbling economy and lack of investment has forced companies to downsize and retrench workers. Many are doing away with formal employment, according to FFWUZ, and are instead offering contracts to workers as a way of avoiding providing benefits such as medical aid, funeral policies and pensions.

“Casual workers endure years of work with no terminal benefits, pensions, medical aid for them and their families,” Maoneka said.

Maoneka pointed out that while employees were “putting workers on short contracts,” the jobs were in fact “permanent of nature.”

The latest annual Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme points out that across the world formal employment lacks social, legal or regulatory protection.

According to the report, nearly half the world’s workers are in vulnerable employment, trapped in insecure jobs usually outside the jurisdiction of labour legislation and social protection.

According to FFWUZ, many casual workers here are afraid to join labour unions for fear of being victimised and hence continue to have their rights infringed, through lack of knowledge and representation.

“But many employees who do not join labour unions for fear of being victimised by their employers have their rights infringed — being made to work long hours at lower wages,”  Maoneka added. He added that many did not have legal protection.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa in his budget statement in December, 2013 said that government was reviewing the labour law to make the hiring of employees easier.

“The minister responsible for labour should seriously consider amendments to the Labour Act that relates work to productivity. It is also necessary that we introduce in our labour laws flexibility in the hiring of workers, as well as alignment of wage adjustments to labour productivity,” Chinamasa said during the 2013 to 2014 budget announcement.  

The current Labour Relations Act makes dismissals and retrenchments a slow process as employees have to go through a number of hearings. The hearings start at company level and a dissatisfied party can appeal to labour courts.  

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions maintains that workers in Zimbabwe have no rights when faced with retrenchment, and this creates a situation where they can be manipulated by their employers.

Meanwhile, FFWUZ points out that the few people employed by foreign Chinese employers are also being subjected to unlawful working conditions, but lack the knowledge on how to deal with the matter of exploitation and unfair dismissal.

“Foreigners take advantage of the language barrier when we engage them on discussing labour laws and unfair dismissal of their employees. Non-provision of protective clothing, total disregard of labour laws are some of the matters that affect most employees,” Maoneka said.

For Gareth Makaripe, who is casually employed at a Chinese-owned bakery in Msasa industrial area in Harare, the conditions of services are dehumanising.

“These people are slave masters and they use fear to intimidate workers. We are forced to work over night without proper bakery clothing — no gloves, boots or overalls — and people are mocked on petty issues,” Makaripe told IPS.

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

Zimbabwe's power consumption has been growing and the country continues to import electricity to supplement local production. Credit: Michelle Chifamba/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Sep 26 2013 (IPS)

On top of a small wooden cabin in Norton, a dormitory town outside the capital of Zimbabwe, is a solar panel that Silvester Ngunzi uses to light up his household.

Amid the darkness that has pervaded his neighbourhood and the rest of the country sometimes for 24 hours a day over the past decade, due to recurring power outages, Ngunzi and others have turned to solar energy – hailed as clean and readily available – as an alternative source of energy.

According to the Zimbabwe Power Company, the leading generator of electrical energy in Zimbabwe, the country has an average power deficit of 600 megawatts (MW) due to obsolete machinery and limited investment in the energy sector.

Energy specialists insist on the need for a clear policy framework that supports the development of clean sources like solar energy.

“Zimbabwe is a developing country which has been struggling with power generation for more than a decade. The country should therefore start exploiting effective and efficient cleaner renewable energies,” energy expert Philimon Nyikadzino told IPS.

“Although the market for solar energy development is vast in a country like Zimbabwe that has abundant sunlight, the energy is underutilised. Statistics released in 2012 by the Energy Commission show that the energy balance is 51 percent for wood fuel, 19 percent for coal, 12 percent for liquid fuel, 13 percent for electricity and 5 percent for solar energy,” Nyikadzino added.

For the past decade, Zimbabweans have been facing severe, chronic power outages in which they have become accustomed to darkness in their homes and at work.

“This is by far the best investment I have ever made,” Ngunzi told IPS. “The ongoing power outages make my heart bleed. I have resorted to solar energy for lighting and a gas cooker for cooking. In these desperate times we have to come up with innovative ways to curb the power deficit affecting the country.”

“Candlelit nights have become part of our daily lives as we grapple with our homework in the darkness of the night,” fifteen-year-old Batsirai Muzondo from Glaudina Park, Harare, told IPS.

But Zimbabweans across the country’s four provinces seem to have gradually found alternative ways to deal with the expanding power deficit.

“From the break of dawn to dusk power outages are our daily bread, and the power utility companies seem not to take heed of our plight,” Muzondo added.

Over the last five years, Chinese-made solar panels and diesel-powered generators have slowly trickled into the country.

Shop owners in Harare who sell the solar panels and generators say business has been brisk.

Both rural people and urbanites have been flooding the shops purchasing the products, which range from 20 dollars for a small solar panel that provides lighting and powers small appliances such as television sets, and from 80 dollars for a small generator.

“The solar panels and generators have come as a relief to most Zimbabweans,” Petros Dowani, a businessman in Harare’s central business district, told IPS. “Many informal business people and individuals have invested in the products to address the power challenges.

“When I ventured into the business five years ago, I used to go to China and purchase more than 300 solar panels and 100 power generators every fortnight.”

Welders and hair salons in Harare’s home-based industrial sites, as well as bottle-stores and night clubs in residential areas like Glen View, Warren Park, Ruwa and Mabvuku in Harare have resorted to generators to run their businesses.

Lamerk Mandizvidza, owns a bottle-store and butchery in Warren Park. He says the outages have been affecting his perishable meat business as he can go for almost a week without electricity.

“It is more economical to use generators in place of electricity because five litres of diesel costs less that 10 dollars yet it lasts more than a week. Every month I can use 40 dollars for diesel compared to the 100-dollar electricity bills per month I used to pay,” Mandizvidza told IPS.

Wheat farmers have lamented the continued blackouts that impact their production as they need electricity to irrigate their winter crop. As a result, yields have fallen short in recent years.

“Power outages come at a critical time as most of the crop in the fields will be reaching the flowering stage that needs constant irrigation which uses electricity to power the irrigation pumps,” Poterayi Ngarambi, a resettled farmer in Shurugwi, Midlands Province, told IPS. “Since most of the irrigation water has to be pumped from dams and wells, power outages seriously threaten winter wheat production.”

Economists say the government should find innovative solutions like solar power irrigation.

“It is ambitious for the country and the power companies to come up with innovative ways like solar power to improve the power supply that has been affecting the country,” Harare-based independent economic analyst Rudolf Phiri told IPS.

The Zimbabwe Power Company announced plans in June for a 100 MW solar power project in Gwanda Matabeleland province and Zvishavane, Masvingo province, as part of the efforts to boost the country’s power supply.

According to former energy minister Elton Mangoma, sites for new 100 MW solar projects have been identified in Gwanda in Matabeleland and Zvishavane in Masvingo Province.

The Harare Institute of Technology (HIT), Technical College, Harare commissioned a solar water heating system in March.

The Pilot Public Solar Water Heating System Project was funded by the government of South Korea through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) working in collaboration with the Ministries of Energy and Power Development, Public Works, and Higher and Tertiary Education.

KOICA installed two solar water heating systems in the pilot phase, one at the Harare Institute of Technology and another at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), heating 15,000 and 13,000 litres respectively. The one at UBH also provides space heating for incubators in the maternity ward.

“Zimbabwe is in one of the best solar radiation belts in the world, averaging 2,100 kilowatt hours per square metre per year and 3,000 hours, equivalent to 300 days of sunshine per year. However, this resource is currently under-utilised,” Evans Mushongera, a technological researcher with HIT, told IPS.

“Solar Technology requires that solar energy be produced and stored during the day for use at night and this makes it more expensive. Our situation in Zimbabwe is that electricity is short during the day so there is no need to produce and store,” Mushongera added.

Because of a lack of electricity in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, most people have to charge their mobile phones on solar-powered chargers. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Sep 4 2013 (IPS)

Prosper Muripo rents a small space in a general dealer’s shop at the Gotora shopping centre in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland East province. He is one of the many people in rural Zimbabwe who earn a living selling recharge vouchers and charging mobile phone batteries on solar-powered chargers.

“I charge 50 cents to charge a battery for 30 minutes and a dollar for an hour. I also charge non-owners of mobile phones 50 cents to make a one-minute phone call,” Muripo told IPS.

Rural Zimbabwe is characterised by a lack of proper infrastructure, a limited electricity supply and poor road networks. Traditionally, communication to these areas has always been limited.“Job notifications can now be sent on mobile phones. I’m not employed and when work is available in the city and the major towns I can be notified.” -- Rural Zimbabwean Miriam Chauke

However, over the past five years mobile phones have begun providing a means of communication, connecting Zimbabwe’s rural population with urban dwellers.

According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), a body mandated to issue licences in the postal and telecommunications sector, Zimbabwe now has a mobile penetration of 97 percent.

“The increase in mobile penetration has been triggered by increased investment in communication infrastructure in both urban and rural areas, meaning that marginalised people can now afford to use mobile phones,” POTRAZ acting director Alfred Marisa told IPS.

Mobile phones have slowly become the simplest and cheapest mode of communication in this southern African nation.

According to the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency’s 2011-2012 Poverty Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey, which was released in June, 7.7 percent of Zimbabwe’s economically active population is unemployed. This is a marked contrast to previously reported unemployment figures of 85 to 90 percent.

The report also noted that 8.2 million Zimbabweans in rural areas are poor, while 10.7 percent of the rural population is unemployed. It is estimated that 72 percent of Zimbabwe’s  12.75 million people live in rural areas.

But despite these high poverty figures for rural Zimbabwe, mobile phone usage is growing rapidly there.

According to Frost and Sullivan Growth Partnership Services, an international company that conducts business research to accelerate growth, “despite the high levels of unemployment, the number of mobile phone subscribers in Zimbabwe has increased from less than two million at the end of 2008 to more than 10.9 million in 2013.” The country’s mobile phone users are expected to reach 13.5 million subscribers by 2015 and the industry will be worth 1.34 billion dollars by 2016.

Much of this increased usage has been attributed to a massive decline in SIM card prices. In 2008, a SIM card cost about 90 dollars, now it costs less than one dollar. And since 2009, when Zimbabwe opted to adopt a multi-currency regime to beat hyperinflation under the Zimbabwean dollar, Chinese-made mobile phones have become easily available here. On average they cost about 21 dollars.

Mobile phone dealers who sell Chinese-made products in Harare say they are doing brisk trade as a result of the affordability of their products.

“Business is booming, especially during the tobacco harvesting season when many rural farmers auction their produce [in the city]. Since the multi-currencies system brought economic stability, people have steady incomes and can save to purchase gadgets such as mobile phones, which were [previously] reserved for the rich and elite,” mobile phone seller Sylvester Mbirimani told IPS.

Telecel Zimbabwe, the country’s second-largest mobile phone operator, has been expanding and upgrading its network over the last two years to access more subscribers in rural areas.

“Telecel has been creating value for money for its clients. We were the first to slash the price of SIM cards and we are committed to satisfy our clients and promote growth in all unconnected areas,” Telecel marketing director Octivius Kahiya told IPS.

Many rural Zimbabweans like Miriam Chauke from Mutare, Manicaland Province, say that the access to mobile phones has empowered them. Chauke is unemployed but she worked part time as a manual labourer and was able to earn enough money to purchase a SIM card and a cheap mobile phone.

“It now seems that mobile phone use is becoming a basic human right, because they are offering the opportunity to help [close] communication barriers that were present in the past.

“Job notifications can now be sent on mobile phones. I’m not employed and when work is available in the city and the major towns I can be notified [by SMS subscription service],” Chauke told IPS.

Mobile phones have also compensated for poor banking services in rural areas thanks to mobile banking. Now rural Zimbabweans are able to supercede the rigid rules of formal banking and make financial transactions. However, this still remains a fledgling market as most rural Zimbabweans still mostly use their mobile phones for texts and making calls.

Economic analyst Eric Shabangu predicts that the mobile phone banking has the potential to become the biggest banking platform in Zimbabwe.

“The rapid spread of mobile phone penetration, as opposed to bank outreach, has created a fertile ground for mobile money to grow in Zimbabwe. Mobile banking could be the platform for rapid financial inclusion of people that now only need mobile phones to access a certain range of essential financial services they never used to get,” Shabangu told IPS.

According to Josham Gurira, an economist at the University of Zimbabwe, access to mobile phones will continue to change rural Zimbabwe.

“Access to information and communication technologies is now considered a basic human right and mobile phones have offered the best opportunity to enhance the digital divide which could have prevented it. The use of mobile technology has empowered many people and is regarded as a key tool in helping alleviate global poverty,” Gurira told IPS.

“The adaption of mobile technology has redefined the way people communicate and the growth in mobile phone use has shaped a new way of engagement and connection. Mobile phones are providing Zimbabwe with an opportunity to develop,” he said.

At most voter registration centres in Zimbabwe there are long queues and the process to register a tedious one. Most civil society organisations believe that this is a deliberate attempt by President Robert Mugabe’s supporters to frustrate people and prevent them from registering. Credit: Michelle Chifamba/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Jul 6 2013 (IPS)

Like many other aspiring voters, Emilia Magirazi, 27, braved a chilly winter’s morning as she waited patiently to register as a voter in the slow-moving queue at Kuwadzana 8 Primary School in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

Zimbabwe’s second round of voter registration commenced on Jun. 19 and is expected to end on Tuesday Jul. 9, with the presidential elections set for Jul. 31. A first round took place over 20 days in April and May.

But people like Magirazi are finding it hard to put their names down on Zimbabwe’s electoral role. This is because she is a foreign national: Magirazi was born in Zambia, of Zimbabwean parents.

“I arrived here before the break of dawn, and by lunch time I eventually got service from the officials. But they told me that I am an alien and not eligible to register. I was referred to the army barracks or the police for clearance of any criminal offences,” Magirazi told IPS.

While the 12th amendment of Zimbabawe’s Citizenship Act 2011 outlaws dual citizenship, the country’s new constitution, which was enacted in May after the first round of voter registration, recognises those born abroad of Zimbabwean parents to be citizens. It also recognises all people born in this southern African nation, regardless of their parents’ citizenship, as Zimbabweans.

But like Magirazi, scores of other foreign nationals have been denied the right to register as voters, despite the stipulations in the new constitution.

According to the Harare office of the International Organization for Migration, between 500,000 nd four million Zimbabweans are living abroad. Most fled Zimbabwe for economic reasons as between 2003 and 2009 the country had one of the worst rates of hyperinflation in the world.

With the word “alien” inscribed on her national identity document (ID), Magirazi was referred to the Registrar General’s office to apply for a new one. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has stipulated that persons previously categorised as foreign nationals should apply for citizenship and national ID cards that reflect this changed status in order to vote.

But long queues and cumbersome demands have become the order of the day at the Registrar General’s office. Marshal Bachi, 35, of Dzivarasekwa in Harare, said he had to sleep at the Registrar General’s offices when he went to obtain a new ID as his previous one stated that he was a foreign national.

“They refused to process my national ID because my birth certificate was soiled and they said that I should get a new one … Due to this cumbersome process, I might not be able to get a new ID to register as a voter before the process ends,” Bachi told IPS.

The Election Resource Centre (ERC), a local NGO, believes that the Registrar General’s office is deliberately trying to frustrate first-time voters in order to prevent them from voting.

“It seems to be happening to a lot of prospective voters. Foreign nationals will not be able to vote in the next election. For the first time they were able to enjoy being citizens under the new constitution, but they will not be able to exercise their right under prevailing conditions.

“The stipulations by the electoral commission are contradictory to what is happening on the ground. A number of people are being denied the right to claim their citizenship at the Registrar General’s office despite the ZEC’s stipulations that those formerly-categorised as ‘aliens’ can apply for new IDs,” ERC director, Tawanda Chimhinhi, told IPS.

Harare-based social commentator Tawanda Mukurunge agreed.

“Despite the fact that the elections are only three weeks away, there has been no serious attempt by the ZEC to educate Zimbabweans on the impending vote and their right to vote. The information blackout by the ZEC is a deliberate ploy meant to keep unsuspecting citizens in the dark. The possibility of a free and fair election will remain a pipe dream unless these issues are addressed,” he told IPS.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s chief of staff, Ian Makone, told IPS that many more people were being turned away from registering to vote.

“More than 50 people failed to register on the grounds that they were aliens and were sent back home, while the elderly who did not have IDs were told to get clearance from KG ‘6’ an army headquarter where national documents such as passports are processed. Cabinet must therefore revisit this issue because this is taking place all over the country,” he said.

However, on Thursday Jul. 4, the Zimbabwe Constitutional Court overturned appeals to delay the elections. Many here say that the haste with which President Robert Mugabe set the election date has not allowed for sufficient time to reform the country’s security forces. In previous elections, state security have been accused of instigating violence against those opposed to Mugabe.

Civil society groups have said that holding the elections on Jul. 31 would likely incite fear and possibly result in an unfair election.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a coalition of NGOs monitoring the elections, said that the nature of the voter-registration process, the atmosphere associated with it, and the disruption and intimidation of civil society were an attempt by Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front to instigate violence at the polls in order to reclaim its political legitimacy. Mugabe has been in power for 33 years in a reign marred by corruption, violence and political oppression.

The Youth Agenda Trust, a youth networking organisation, added that the process had been deliberately designed to deny bona fide citizens their right to vote.

“The cumbersome processing of ‘aliens’ is a direct violation of the rights of the people of Zimbabwe and a breach of the constitutional right to vote as stipulated in the new constitution. The time that has also been allocated to register is not enough as most people have either failed to cope with the long and winding queues and or have not had time to visit the centres in the short period due to other competing interests,” director of Youth Agenda Trust, Fortune Nyamande, told IPS.

Zimbabwe’s legislation is silent on the issue of women’s rights to inherit communal land. And upon their husband’s deaths, many widows find themselves evicted from their matrimonial homes. Credit: Michelle Chifamba/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
HARARE, Jun 24 2013 (IPS)

When Maude Taruvinga* votes in Zimbabwe’s elections later this year, she will be voting for her local female politician as she has placed her hopes for a better future on the presence of more women in this southern African nation’s legislature.

In January 2012, Taruvinga became a victim of Zimbabwe’s patriarchal traditions when her in-laws forced her out of her matrimonial home in Marondera, Mashonaland East Province, after her common-law husband passed away intestate.

“I eventually decided to leave my husband’s land because I could not endure the harassment any more. No one could help me. Even the police took the side of my husband’s relatives.“Only a woman in parliament is capable of changing the life of another woman.” -- Member of parliament and chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Beatrice Nyamupinga

“Many widows find themselves thrown out of their homes by greedy relatives and give up because of a lack of knowledge and (because the do not receive) protection from the police,” 45-year-old Taruvinga told IPS.

The Zimbabwe Administration of Estates Act No. 6 of 1997 stipulates that if a spouse dies without a will, the surviving partner inherits their immovable property. Prior to this act, a husband’s estate was dissolved if he died intestate.

However, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association director Emilia Muchawa told IPS that although 86 percent of the country’s women earn a living farming communal land allocated to their husbands by traditional chiefs, legislation is silent on the issue of women’s rights to inherit this land.

“Customarily chiefs allocate land to male heads of households, but women do not automatically inherit this upon their husband’s death.

“They may be evicted from the land when widowed, regardless of the years they spent married. Many who remain on the land do so at the goodwill of their in-laws or traditional leaders. Childless widows are often evicted, as are young widows who refuse to be physically ‘inherited’ by a male relative of their late husband,” she told IPS.

Currently, Zimbabwe’s new constitution, which was enacted into law in May, provides for equality of both sexes, and activists who spoke to IPS said that there was a need for laws to be revised to reflect this, and to protect widows married under customary law.

Civic groups here believe that if more women were elected to Zimbabwe’s parliament, they would be more vocal in addressing this and other discriminatory practices against women.

Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU), a non-governmental organisation that aims to increase the participation of women in policy- and decision-making, launched a “Vote for a Woman Campaign” ahead of the presidential elections.

The campaign is meant to help the country achieve gender equality in accordance with the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Gender Development .

The protocol includes several progressive clauses and 23 set targets, including the target that women will hold 50 percent of decision-making positions in public and private sectors by 2015. Women constitute some 6.7 million of Zimbabwe’s 12.9 million people.

“The ‘Vote for a Woman Campaign’ will accelerate the number of women taking up positions in parliament and local government. It is meant to raise awareness among the general populace to vote for a woman in the hope that women in parliament will improve the lives of women at the grassroots,” WiPSU director Fanny Chirisa told IPS.

Marlene Sigauke, programmes manager at the Center for African Women Advancement, an organisation that works for the development of African women, told IPS that policies and political party manifestos on gender equality must be fully implemented.

“Women in power should be able to develop strong, gender-sensitive policies (that benefit) women at the grassroots,” she said.“Only a woman in parliament is capable of changing the life of another woman.” -- Member of parliament and chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Beatrice Nyamupinga

Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Monica Mutsvangwa told IPS that it was time to fight for women’s rights.

“The new constitution reserves seats for women and we want to take that opportunity … to improve their welfare,” she said. The constitution allocates 60 total affirmative action seats for women in both the country’s 210-seat parliament and 88-seat senate.

“The constitution now approves an 18 percent quota of women’s participation in politics. We are therefore going to use this constitution to implement policies and turn theory into practice,” Mutsvangwa said.

Member of parliament and chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Beatrice Nyamupinga told IPS that although Zimbabwe was signatory to a number of conventions, the government has failed to implement these policies.

“Many victims (widows not allowed to inherit their husband’s property) are afraid to report their cases for fear of being judged and interrogated by authorities and the police. The new constitution has provisions for gender equality and certain clauses protect the rights of women. If women themselves are not present in parliament to make sure that the laws are implemented, then the provisions will never come to pass,” Nyamupinga said.

“Only a woman in parliament is capable of changing the life of another woman.”

*Name changed to protect identity.

While most Zimbabweans are now informal traders, it is very difficult for the economy to grow and create more development. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Michelle Chifamba
Jun 4 2013 (IPS)

More than three decades after Zimbabwe’s independence, the idea of developing its rural areas seems to have been laid to rest, as points intended for development have been turned into beer outlets, which seem to be more lucrative than industry.

But across the country, those in rural areas are calling for the revival of growth points, the term for the areas set aside for development, even as this southern African nation’s government admitted in January that it had no money to pay for its upcoming general elections.

According to analysts, growth points were meant to develop into towns, complete with their own industries and housing estates. Their purpose was to provide employment in rural areas and improve the local economy, without forcing people to migrate to large cities and towns to find work.

“During the 1980s many growth points were seeded by the government. Investors, mainly in the form of commercial businessmen, were helped to put up structures and start viable businesses, either as individuals or as co-operatives,” Wisedom Ncube, a sociologist from the University of Zimbabwe, told IPS.

“It seems that most growth points are failing to attract meaningful investment except for the building of a few government departments and Grain Marketing Board silos, which have gradually become white elephants,” he said.

People IPS spoke to said that even though the government was in financial trouble, it needed to do something to revive growth points across the country. In January Minister of Finance Tendai Biti told reporters that the country only had 217 dollars left in its public bank account after paying civil servants.

James Mazazi, the village headman in Zvimba, Mashonaland West Province, in central Zimbabwe, is one of those who hold that opinion.

“As years go by, there have not been any meaningful changes at the centres three decades after independence. Pubs are still popular as they were back in the day. Many of our children have crossed the boarders in search of better prospects because the shops that are opened no longer get any assistance from government (to grow their business) and they have remained general dealers,” he told IPS.

Mazazi said that no real development had occurred.

“The government promised to bring investment and create jobs for our youths, but over the years nothing credible has happened and our youths continue to rely heavily on farming as a form of employment,” he said.

And in Zvimba, where the rainfall is erratic and the quality of the soil poor, this is not a guaranteed way to earn a living.

“Here in Zvimba the farming is not reliable. It is even more difficult to make a living as a result,” said Mazazi.

Zimbabwe and its people have suffered from decades of economic and political turmoil, which gradually caused many manufacturing companies to shut down in the major cities of Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru. Between 2003 and 2009, the country had one of the worst rates of hyperinflation in the world and its year on year inflation was reported as 231 percent.

This was compounded by an ailing rail and air system. Eventually, growth points faced neglect as they were never developed to serve their intended purposes.

However, dotted across the country, vast acres of land that were intended to be growth points lie dormant.

“The concept of growth points was mooted by the Zimbabwean government in the 1980s as a means to decongest cities and towns. This was done mainly to curb the rural-to-urban migration through employment creation and the availing of basic services to people in rural areas. Almost three decades later, most of the growth points are undeveloped with beer outlets being the most lucrative businesses,” University of Zimbabwe-based rural and urban planner, and analyst, Innocent Chakanyuka, told IPS.

A rural councillor from Mrewa, Mashonaland East Province, Mathew Nyawasha, said the youth were suffering in poverty due to unemployment despite the potential for job creation at growth point centres.

“If the growth points are developed into industries and employment is created, most of our youth who are now living as refugees in foreign lands might decide to come back and have a better future here where they can live closer to their families,” Nyawasha told IPS.

Silvester Candiero, headman for Nhongo village in Gokwe, a small town in Midlands Province, told IPS that cotton ginneries and tobacco sales offices should be located at growth points. This, he said, would save farmers the tiresome journey to Harare and the hassles that are associated with selling tobacco leaves.

“Tobacco farmers travel considerable distances to Harare and some will be stranded in the capital were they spend weeks or months without any roofs over their heads. After getting paid most of the farmers are swindled by the thieves and money mongers from Harare so they are broke by the time they return,” said Candiero.

Economists have attributed the failure to improve growth points to the current and prevailing economic conditions. They believe that, to some extent, the government-induced, fast-track land redistribution process could have triggered underdevelopment. Over 3,000 mostly white commercial farmers were thrown off their land beginning in 2000.

“While most people are now informal traders, it is very difficult for the economy to grow and create more development,” Tendayi Muchemedza, an economist with mining consultancy Environmental Eagles, told IPS.

“The economy is sliding down – instead of growing forward we are shifting backwards. Farming has shifted from commercial to subsistence farming, and there are no industries and the small shops, which remain open at growth points, are general dealers. There is no growth in the country at large and so we cannot expect growth at the growth points,” added Muchemedza.