After a questionable traditional ceremony, a ridiculously high amount paid to Ms Karimatsenga’s family and two weeks (or to use the Herald’s more accurate 12 days) filled with media and public speculation about his marital status, the Prime Minister finally has something to say about it.

We should ask if he was ever married to begin with. The only piece of information that hasn’t been contested is that on ‘Friday 18 November a delegation from the Tsvangirai family went to the Karimatsenga family homestead to perform traditional and cultural rites’. The figures of the damages or roora are disputed. With the Tembo family being quoted as telling the media it was $36 000 and unnamed MDC-T officials lowering it to less than $10 000. Everything following the ceremony is arguable.

From the beginning the Prime Minister and his spokespeople have refused to disclose details of what happened on that fateful day in Christon Bank. The Tembo’s reportedly described Tsvangirai arriving at his in-laws’ home in a convoy with enough ‘groceries to fill a house’. Ms Karimatsenga’s aunt is quoted by New Zimbabwe describing Tsvangirai as a ‘cultured son-in-law’ who ‘removed his shoes as per custom’. She goes on to say:

“Imagine if you were in my position. How would you feel? Who would not want to have a Prime Minister as a son-in-law? There are many Senators and MPs, but there is only one Prime Minister. We consider ourselves very lucky and we are happy for the two.”

In contrast, those in the PMs camp have stridently refused to confirm anything other than a meeting took place between the two families.

In the two weeks that followed, the Tembo’s through the Herald went to town with the story. Various members of Ms Karimatsenga’s family are quoted describing their joy in great detail. The Herald’s uncharacteristic interest in the union is also telling. It is difficult to rationalise that a paper whose hostile editorial stance towards the Prime Minister would take a sudden interest in his marital affairs unless a scandal was involved. And of course a scandal did surface. During the PMs silence, which that paper attributed to his need to end his other affairs with four other aspirant Second First Ladies, the Herald published an article about Ms. Karimatsenga’s main rival in romance, Elizabeth Guma. It appeared that the PM had also promised her he would marry her, with one source even saying:

“When you wrote the first story that Mr Tsvangirai had married, I thought it was all about Elizabeth. She has been in love with him and many people close to her are aware of the relationship.”

Coupled with rumours printed as facts about the state of Ms Karimatsenga’s pregnancy, this story implied that the PM was marrying because she was pregnant.

However, the fact of the pregnancy itself was also cause for media gossip. Some sources state that Ms. Karimatsenga is seven months pregnant with twins, and others refute this, quoting mysterious unnamed senior MDC-T sources who allege that she and her family were using a false pregnancy to trap Zimbabwe’s most eligible widower into marriage.

In the face of such extensive media speculation, the Prime Minister remained strikingly silent on the matter. His official spokesman, Luke Tamborinyika, did not help matters by issuing strange and ambiguous statements. He is variously quoted speaking in riddles, where a simple yes or no would have sufficed. It seems the only people who were trying to avoid this embarrassing incident by being clear in their responses were mysterious ‘unnamed senior MDC-T officials’ whose very existence is questionable.

When finally the PM did decide to make his official position public, his statement is also full of ambiguities. In a statement tellingly titled: “Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s position on his reported marriage” Mr. Tsvangirai denies that he was present at the ceremony, yet it is customary for the groom to meet his in-laws after the bride price has been negotiated. His absence seems to indicate that it was not roora that was being paid. Further, the statement makes no reference to an actual marriage taking place, just that there is a ‘relationship’. It is possible that the ceremony was to pay ‘damages’ which also formalises his relationship with the Karimatsenga family as the father to one of their daughter’s children.

In all fairness to the PM, I quite doubt that the affairs of state, such as they are, couldn’t wait for at least a day should he have been married. It is improbable that the Mr. Tsvangirai, a role model to millions of Zimbabwean men, would find the time in his busy schedule to make Ms. Karimatsenga pregnant (with twins!) out of wedlock, but not have time to meet his supposed in-laws. But it is a shame that the PM when faced with the same situation as many young men, has handled it with a lot less grace. Munya Chidzonga faced with the same sort of circumstances left no room for speculation at any point in his relationship with the mother of his son.

So what really happened? Truthfully, it’s none of our business and in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter. But the office of Prime Minister is a public one, and public attention to his private life is something the Prime Minister should be, if not comfortable with, then at least aware of. Despite what he and several media allege are the machinations of ZANU PF in tarnishing his image, the Prime Minister has successfully accomplished this himself. Ours is a society that expects powerful men to have at least a wife, a girlfriend and a little something on the side. Therefore, he could not have been publicly humiliated for sowing his wild, if aged, oats about the savannah.  But love in the time of HIV/AIDS, especially as a public official, is a difficult thing. Who will take him seriously when he endorses the ABCs of safer sex when it is clear he does not practice it?  And what kind of man leaves the future mother of his child and possible bride to defend herself against the wolves when he has full knowledge of what they are capable of?  That he did not clarify his position with regard to the traditional ceremony or his relationship with Ms. Karimatsenga a lot sooner is very telling of his character as a man.

Kubatana’s World AIDS Day winning text message sent in from a subscriber:

To prevent HIV transmission try various sex positions with one partner. NOT one position with various partners.
- Lloyd Nyarota

The many women who are violated in our country have duties in society. They have things they have to do and ways in which they contribute to the Zimbabwe being what is on a daily basis. Whether she is a teacher, street vendor, nurse, secretary or indeed a housewife, she is making a consistent contribution to society, regardless of whether she is paid or not.

When workers get injured either at work, or while off duty, he/she is either compensated and/or given time off to recuperate. Either way, the individual’s productivity is affected by these injuries. Why then do we not see that injuries sustained by a woman who is affected by gender based violence (GBV) affect both her physical well being as well as her ability to perform her designated duties, therefore impacting negatively on the economy?

Who does the work … while she nurses her wounds, while the police give her the run-around, while she pursues her case against a perpetrator in the courts, or when the monster has finally killed her? Who will do the work while women continue to be violated?

Society’s apathy towards the apparent increase of GBV frightens me. Maybe if we look at this issue from a purely selfish point of view, that of wanting to ensure that the economy flourishes and that business continues as usual, we might finally grasp the seriousness of the impact of GBV. Read the following article from the Herald for a more in-depth look at how GBV impacts Zimbabwe economically:

They are the mothers, teachers, cleaners, caregivers, cooks, nurses, entrepreneurs, vendors and cross-border traders. The list of women’s contribution to society and the country’s economy is endless yet in most cases unrecognised or even ignored. Worse still, their loved ones barter them.

While gender-based violence is perpetrated by both men and women, UNFPA reports that 95 percent of victims are women while 99 percent perpetrators are male. Indeed, Zimbabwe’s financial economy is dependent on women’s reproductive and care-giving work for the fitness, well-being and the very existence of the paid workforce. The economy also relies a great deal on women to pick up the pieces ignored by the paid economy. These include nursing elderly people, tutoring and childcare. The value of unpaid work is as much a part of the monetary economy as paid work. Yet precisely because it is unpaid, the work has long been overlooked and undermined in the economic equations. Sometimes women themselves ignore the fact that unpaid work is actually work.

Some of the women who are not formally employed and stay at home will say they are not employed and overlook the cleaning jobs at home. These are unpaid duties expected of them by society, nothing more.

This is due to the many years of socialisation women underwent from childhood when they would be given dolls and pots to play with while boys where given cars, toy guns and bicycles to ride.

Interestingly, when the same woman gets an office job and they hire a domestic worker, they are expected to pay the domestic worker.

Some women have dedicated their time and energy towards volunteer care work yet it is also another vital unpaid contribution women make to their communities as well as to the economy.

Volunteer work is varied and extensive and takes a lot of energy out of women who also have to go to their homes and take care of their families.

But despite all these contributions to the country’s economy, most women are subjected to all forms of gender-based violence. The Multiple Indicator Monitoring Survey of 2009 indicated that in Mashonaland Central Province some women are beaten up for simple things like burning a pot of sadza, failing to look after children, refusing to have sex, going out without telling their husbands and arguing with husbands.

Many women have lost their lives leaving behind children some as young as two months old. Some cases have gone unreported with the victims suffering in silence. Placard-holding women have marched on the streets denouncing this monster that has “feasted” on the flesh of many women.

Some members of our society have simply watched the increasing cases of GBV with apathy.

Unscrupulous people would rather report the matter in their neighbourhood to “H-Metro” as part of their entertainment, while some law enforcement agents are reportedly dismissing GBV reports by women as trivia.

Most dangerously, some people have accepted GBV, especially between married couples as a “normal” phenomenon.

This year’s commemoration of the16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence stretching from November 25 to December 10 should be a time of introspection for perpetrators of GBV, families, society, government and everyone who cares.

Perpetrators of GBV should carefully study their balance sheets and income flows and establish the economic impacts of their heinous deeds.

They should publish full statements showing how much they fork out to pay for the medical bills incurred by their maimed wives, litigation, transport on trips to hospital, airtime to seek counselling from relatives and friends.

And there is absence from the woman’s care work while she nurses wounds if not funeral costs.

The Government and the police should consider the amount of taxpayers’ money that is lost through the court processes, calculate how much money is spent to convene a full court session, paperwork, and prosecutor and judge to preside over GBV matters. What about the pressure of work added to the already overwhelmed hospital staff and equipment?

The police should realise GBV is a burden to the national fiscus and that has a direct impact on their salaries too.

Police attended to 1 940 cases in 2008, increasing to 3 193 in 2009, then skyrocketing to 7 628 in 2010. Between January and March this year, 2 536 cases have already been reported to police, a high number compared to that of last year during the same period.

The majority of the reported cases are those of physical violence but sadly most of the cases are withdrawn before going to court or in court. Any right thinking police force should be concerned about these records. So should everyone else.

Its is apparent that 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is not long enough to address GBV. However, the annual campaign serves to mobilise support for zero tolerance to GBV for the many generations to come.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991.

Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a violation of human rights.

This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World Aids Day, and December 6, which marks the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organising strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women.

If zero tolerance against GBV means zero tolerance against economic distress, then Zimbabwe should use its budget, its police force, its politics and all means necessary to stop violence against women.

Source

Women’s issues have a long way to go in Zimbabwe, especially Gender Based Violence, but how much progress can be made when we continue to receive such meagre budget allocations? The article below explores the poor allocation to the Women’s revolving fund, and resultant impact of GBV on the 2012 budget as a whole. Have a read:

Finance Minister Tendai Biti announced the $4 Billion 2012 National Budget on Thursday, but made a serious omission when he mentioned foreign travel as unnecessarily gobbling public resources at the expense of other pressing national needs. Gender based violence is as much a ‘cancer in the management of public resources’ as multiple foreign trips are.

Whilst the 2012 budget makes mention of women-specific issues which treasury intends to address, the cost of GBV weighs heavily on the health and home affairs expenditures. Despite women’s contributions to their families, communities and country’s economy, they reap very little in terms of revenue. Worst still, they are subjected to all forms of GBV.

The Multiple Indicator Monitoring Survey of 2009 indicated that in Mashonaland Central Province some women were beaten up for simple mistakes like burning a pot of sadza, failing to look after children, refusing to have sex, going out without telling their husbands and arguing with husbands.
Police attended to 1940 cases in 2008, increasing to 3193 in 2009, then skyrocketing to 7628 in 2010. Between January and March this year, 2 536 cases have already been reported to police – a high number compared to last year during the same period. The majority of cases brought to the attention of police are those of physical violence, but sadly most of the cases are withdrawn before going to court or in court.

The courts have also been laden with GBV cases. Some women have lost their lives, leaving behind children as young as two months old. Some cases have gone unreported, while others have been swept under the carpet, with the victims suffering in silence.

Finance Minister Biti’s statement overlooked the need to put in place measures to stop the loss of revenue caused by GBV. If domestic violence is not curbed, then treasury will have to fork out more and more resources towards the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. This will mean ensuring that police posts are adequately staffed and resourced in order to attend to the numerous GBV reports.

Perpetrators of GBV should consider the amount of tax payer’s money that is lost through the court processes, and how much money is spent to convene a full court session, paperwork, prosecutor and judge to preside over the case.

The 2012 budget allocation towards health care and maternal health care will have to cover the many cases of forced pregnancies, rape victims and physical and mental abuse. Meanwhile, families are losing money in medical bills, litigation and counselling. Other economic losses to the nation include the loss of productive time as victims nurse injuries.

Reducing the costs of GBV on the national fiscus could unlock resources for other gender equality and equity issue. For example, the 2012 budget has only allocated a paltry $3 Million to the Women’s Revolving Fund under the Ministry of Women Affairs Gender and Community Development- a fund that purports to empower women economically. Yet women constitute 52 % of the population estimated to be at 13 Million. If that fund was to be shared equally among Zimbabwe’s women, then each woman would get less than $50.

If the treasury wishes to plug all the leaks in the nation’s economy, it has to audit the cost of GBV and seek corrective measures. – ZWRCN

Source

GALZ and Katswe Sisterhood will be hosting a photo exhibition at the Alliance Francaise on the 1st to the 2nd of December. Tinzwei is a photo voice initiative carried out by a diverse group of Harare women aged 19 to 43 sharing the experiences of their struggles and successes.

Hosted by Def Zee (Definitely Zimbabwean) at the US Embassy’s Public affairs section, was a discussion entitled The Small House Saga. The team from Def Zee showed 2 video clips, one of an interview with a young woman who is currently a small house (having a committed relationship with a married man), and a prostitute from the Avenues area of Harare.

Small houses, are a growing phenomenon and are very much an ‘officially’ unofficial part of societal and family structures. It is not to say that this is a new practice. Men have been having long-term extra-marital affairs, even having families, since time immemorial. The majority of men at the event thought that having a small house was okay. The small house interviewed explained that she was faithful to her man and that she trusted that he was faithful too and that they therefore do not use condoms. The truth of the matter is that many people are not faithful, and since couples tend not to protect themselves during sex when in these types of relationships than in casual sexual encounters, small houses may be loopholes that continue to spread HIV.

The role of prostitution in the spread of HIV/AIDS was also discussed. The prostitute interviewed revealed that over 75% of the men who paid for sex with her did not want to use a condom, and that the vast majority of her clients were indeed married men. Nearly half the audience was in favour of legalizing prostitution in order that the country can benefit from the tax revenue and that the practice may be monitored and regulated for the safety of all involved. The reasons women turned to this ‘profession’ were also explored, with poverty being identified as the chief reason. Clearly, the issues of small houses and prostitution are multi-faceted and require careful consideration, but it is encouraging to see youth talking about such issues in the hope of curbing the spread of HIV. Let me leave you with a question that was asked at yesterday’s discussion: In light of the prevalence of small houses and prostitution, do you think that an HIV/AIDS-free generation is achievable in Zimbabwe?

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