Tag: Farai Shawn Matiashe

Zimbabwe’s Election Widens Gender Gap in Politics — Global Issues

Women were reduced to cheerleaders in Zimbabwe’s recent 2023 general elections. Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
  • by Farai Shawn Matiashe (bulawayo)
  • Inter Press Service

BULAWAYO, Nov 06 (IPS) – Zimbabwe’s recent election has exposed weak gender policies both at the political party and governmental levels as women were sidelined despite the fact that they make up more than half of the 6.5 million electorate.

Zimbabwe held its presidential, parliamentary and local municipality elections on August 23 and 24.

Only 22 women were elected for the 210 National Assembly seats out of the 70 women contested against 637 male candidates, according to the Election Resource Centre.

The number of women who contested the National Assembly seats shows a decline compared to the previous election in 2018, where the number of women who competed against men was 14 percent.

In the 2023 election, the total number of women was 11 percent.

The 22 women who were successfully duly elected as Members of Parliament represent a meagre 10 percent of women in the National Assembly, meaning only 30 percent of the women who contested won, according to the Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE).

This figure has fallen from the 25 women, 11.9 percent, who won seats in the 2018 elections.

“There is a lack of political will on the part of our political leaders to promote gender equality,” says WALPE executive director Sitabile Dewa.

“The political environment in Zimbabwe is characterised by violence, patriarchy, fear, harassment and marginalisation of women in electoral processes. These challenges are some of the major impediments to women’s ascendancy to leadership positions at all levels of government within the country.”

Dewa tells IPS that for Zimbabwe to close the gender gap, political party leaders must walk the talk on equality through genuinely and sincerely levelled the electoral field to allow women, young women and women with disabilities to freely, actively and fully participate as both candidates and voters.

A video went viral recently after a Zanu PF campaigner used derogatory names to refer to Judith Tobaiwa, a female candidate for Kwekwe Central, a constituency located 215 kilometres from Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.

Expensive nomination fees were also a barrier to many aspiring female candidates.

In the 2023 general polls, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission raised the nomination fees beyond the reach of many women who are already disadvantaged economically as compared to their male counterparts in the country.

Presidential candidates paid USD 20,000 while parliamentary candidates parted away with $1000 and $100 for council candidates.

In contrast, in 2018, presidential candidates paid USD 1,000, while legislators paid USD 50.

Linda Masarira of the opposition party Labour, Economists and African Democrats (LEAD) is one of the aspiring presidential candidates who struggled to raise the USD 20,000 nomination fees needed by ZEC this year.

While seats for the National Assembly were shared between CCC and Zanu PF, those from the smaller parties and female candidates who ran as independents failed to win any seats from the plebiscite, showing difficulties outside the main political parties.

All these figures fall short of the 30 percent minimum threshold set out in the 1997 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declaration on Gender and Development, Zimbabwe’s Constitution, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5, which seeks to promote gender equality and empower all women and girls, according to WAPLE.

In June, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced 11 presidential candidates, and there were no women.

Two female presidential candidates, Elisabeth Valerio of United Zimbabwe Alliance (UZA) and Masarira, were blocked by ZEC on petty issues of late payment of nomination fees.

Both female presidential candidates took their matters to court.

Valerio won her case, and ZEC was forced to accept her nomination papers.

But Masarira lost the case.

Incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) was controversially declared the winner of the hotly disputed contested election with 52.6 percent against his biggest rival Nelson Chamisa of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) with 44 percent of the vote.

The opposition has since rejected the election as the polls were marred by voter intimidation, ballot paper delays in opposition strongholds like Harare, Bulawayo and some parts of Manicaland Province and rigging by the electoral body in favour of the ruling Zanu PF.

Multiple observer reports, including SADC, declared the elections not credible, not free, and not fair.

The recently reelected leader has appointed just six women out of 26 cabinet positions.

The gender gap is manifesting in Mnangagwa’s appointment of cabinet ministers.

When Mnangagwa announced his cabinet ministers in September, only six were women out of 26 positions, representing 23 percent.

“It is going to be a mammoth task for Zimbabwe to achieve 50/50 gender balance as enshrined in the Constitution,” says Masarira.

She says this is because the country does not have a “Gender Equality Act to operationalise” some sections of the Constitution.

“Secondly, there is selective application of the Constitution by political parties and the government itself, especially when it comes to issues to do with gender balance, gender equality and non-discrimination,” Masarira says.

Kembo Mohadi, the vice president who was forced to resign in 2021 amid a sex scandal, bounced back as Mnangagwa’s deputy.

Recorded calls of Mohadi soliciting sex from married women who are his subordinates were leaked to the local media.

“Mr Mnangagwa is obviously not bothered by Mohadi’s sex scandals or anyone for that matter,” says Gladys Hlatywayo, a CCC senior official.

“In fact, we have always known that the sex scandals were never the reason why he was forced to resign and were a mere cover-up to a political motive. The message that Mr Mnangagwa is sending by reappointing (an alleged) sexual predator is that he does not care at all about women’s rights issues,” she tells IPS.

Dewa says Mohadi’s reappointment as Zimbabwe’s Vice President shows that President Mnangagwa is not willing to consider the welfare and well-being of women.

“Mr Mohadi’s re-appointment stinks in the face of justice for all survivors of sexual abuse by men. It is an indictment on the highest office of the land that women’s rights are of no importance,” she says.

“The office of the Vice President demands the highest levels of integrity and moral probity by its occupants. Sexual abuse of women is a serious offence which should not be taken lightly regardless of what position one holds in the country.”

Mohadi has not been charged with any sexual offence.

The 2013 Zimbabwean Constitution introduced a women’s quota system, setting aside 60 out of 270 parliamentary seats for women.

This proportional representation provision, which was set to expire in 2023, was extended for two additional electoral cycles by an amendment made to the Constitution by Mnangagwa’s regime last year.

Some women prefer these proportional representation seats as compared to the contested ones.

Dewa says there is a need for a complete overhaul of the current electoral system to promote gender equality in politics.

“The electoral voting system must be changed from the first past the post to proportional representation, with a list in zebra format, as this guarantees gender equality. Citizens must vote for political parties, not individuals, as this also insulates women from political violence and vote buying,” she says.

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In Brazil, Indigenous Leaders and Youth Activists Fight To Protect Amazon — Global Issues

Indigenous leader and activist Vanda Witoto poses at her home in Manaus, Brazil, in October 2022. Credit: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation
  • by Farai Shawn Matiashe (brasÍlia)
  • Inter Press Service

BRASÍLIA, Oct 05 (IPS) – Raffaello Nava, a youth and student activist, has fled his home at the peak of the global Coronavirus pandemic after receiving death threats from multinational companies that invaded his ancestral lands in the Amazon rainforest.

The 22-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is seeking refuge in Manaus, a gateway city to the Amazon tropical rainforest.

“They killed two of my friends. I had to run away,” he says while speaking in Portuguese through a translator.

The powerful companies are linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro. He was succeeded by 67-year-old Lula da Silva, a Latin American leftist and a veteran in Brazil’s politics who won in the October 2022 elections.

Nava’s tribe is resisting the invasions from these companies who are cutting down trees for timber and clearing land for agriculture.

“Our territory is wanted by these people. Cattle ranchers have already taken thousands of hectares. My people are receiving threats,” he says. “I am here on the frontline. Fighting to protect our land and that of Brazil, I do not even know if I will go back home or not. I fear for my life.”

Over the years, the lives of indigenous community activists and leaders have been at stake throughout the Amazon.

In 2020 alone, more than 260 human rights defenders were murdered in Latin America, 202 of which occurred in countries of the Amazon Basin, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia, representing 77 percent of the cases, according to a report by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica).

About 69 percent of these murders in 2020 were against leaders working to defend territory, the environment, and the rights of indigenous peoples.

A boat on the shores of Rio Negro in Brazil. Credit: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

Brazil holds 60 percent of the Amazon, the biggest tropical rainforest in the world, with the other portion shared by nine South American nations, including Peru and Colombia.

Brazil and Bolivia have about 90 percent of deforestation and degradation in the Amazon, shows data from research titled Amazonia Against the Clock, which covers nine countries sharing the tropical rainforest released in September last year by scientists from the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-environmental Information (RAISG) in collaboration with Coica.

Indigenous organisations from the Amazonas are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80 percent of the Amazon forest by 2025.

In the Amazon, land grabbers have been invading the land of indigenous communities to pave the way for mining and agriculture.

Agriculture is responsible for 84 percent of deforestation in the Amazon forest, and the amount of land given over to farming has tripled since 1985, according to the report.

The Amazon forest plays a significant role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus reducing the effects of climate change caused by gas emissions worldwide.

There are over 390 billion trees in the Amazon, helping it to retain some 123 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

But over the years, increasing deforestation and land degradation have been reducing the ability of the Amazon forest to absorb carbon dioxide and instead contributing to global warming through both human-caused and natural fires.

The tropical rainforest has also been experiencing droughts and floods, signs human activities are causing climate change.

During his campaign days, Lula promised to combat deforestation in the Amazon forest, which had worsened under Bolsonaro, who was President since 2019.

Bolsonaro backed farm and ranching expansion in the region due to his links to some of Brazil’s powerful agricultural industry leaders.

Another activist based in Manaus, whose life is in danger from powerful people, says deforestation in the Amazon worsened under Bolsonaro.

An aerial view of a scientific research station, Camp 41, in the Amazon in Brazil. Credit: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

“His policies are of less protection. He also reduced the number of protected areas in the Amazon. He made laws that should protect the forest weaker,” he says in an interview in Manaus in October 2022 during Brazil’s elections.

He says during Bolsonaro’s era, there was an increase in the loss of vegetation due to deforestation, reduced biodiversity and a rise in cases of invasions of indigenous communities in the Amazon.

The activist says agro-businesses and those in the extractive industries use pesticides and chemicals that pollute and contaminate water bodies in the Amazon forest, putting many people and animals in danger.

Vanda Witoto, a Brazilian indigenous leader, says multinational companies and agro-businesses were funding illegal operations such as logging in the Amazon during the Bolsonaro era.

“I visited some communities in the Amazon. There was illegal gold mining. Sadly, there is less reporting because the locals are being threatened. Big companies are investing a lot in illegal mining and deforestation in the southern part of the Amazon,” Witoto says, toning down her voice and holding back her tears during an interview at her home in the neighbourhood of Parque das Tribos just outside of Manaus in October last year.

“I saw this with my own eyes. Some indigenous people work for these companies, pushed by poverty and unemployment. We are against this. We have always been fighting to stop it.”

Adriano Karipuna, an indigenous leader, during an interview in October last year, said law enforcement agents in the Bolsonaro government were ineffective in arresting people committing crimes against his people.

“Our people have been struggling with deforestation. We have been reporting for the past years. But it worsened under Bolsonaro,” says Karipuna, who represents the Karipuna people, an indigenous group who have inhabited the Amazon rainforest for centuries.

“We have been receiving threats. Bolsonaro’s government has been taking our land and donating it to the invaders. Environmental criminals are going unpunished.”

Lula has just hit the ground running with his appointment of a veteran environmentalist, Marina Silva, as the Environment and Climate Change minister.

The 64-year-old Silva’s task is to rebuild Brazil’s environmental protection agencies and stanch the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Under Lula’s Presidency, Joenia Wapichana, the first-ever Indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s Congress, has been appointed leader of the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, popularly known as Funai.

This is a huge achievement for the Brazilian indigenous communities whose role was suppressed under Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro had to cut some of Funai’s budget, authority and number of staff, a move that crippled the agency when he assumed Presidency in 2019.

Witoto says she is hopeful that the predicament of indigenous people will change under Lula’s regime.

“We have to elect a person who respects the rights of indigenous people,” she says, speaking to IPS before Lula’s successful election. She added her people lived in fear from the violence perpetrated by Bolsonaro supporters for merely wearing Lula regalia during the election period in October.

A recent joint analysis by researchers at the University of Oxford, the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows deforestation could fall by 89 percent by 2030 under Lula if he reinstates the policies introduced during his first term in office, saving 28,957 square miles of the Amazon rainforest.

Note: Reporting for this story was supported by the United Nations Foundation.

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Zimbabwean Farmers Turn to Agroecology to Feed Their Families — Global Issues

Smallholder farmer Elizabeth Mpofu uses renewable energy to reduce emissions from firewood at her farm in Shashe, Mashava. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
  • by Farai Shawn Matiashe (bulawayo, zimbabwe)
  • Inter Press Service

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Aug 04 (IPS) – When Nelson Mudzingwa arrived in the Shashe farming area in Mashava in Masvingo, about 294 kilometres from the capital Harare, in the early 2000s, the land was barren, with no hope that the soils could be suitable for farming.

The area used for cattle ranching had turned into a semi-arid.

Livestock was dying due to hunger while trees succumbed to deforestation, and water levels in the nearby Shashe River had decreased because of siltation.

More than two decades later Shashe farming area has transformed into a reputable farming hub.

This was done by employing agroecology techniques, including using locally available resources such as growing traditional grains, rehabilitating the area by planting trees, water harvesting to conserve water and venturing into poultry to get manure to improve soil fertility.

“When I harvest crops in the fields, I make sure that I put aside seed in preparation for the next season,” says Mudzingwa, the 53-year-old small-holder farmer who was born in Chiwundura in Midlands Province, a central part of Zimbabwe.

“By digging contours that channel water in our fields, we have improved the chances of receiving rainfall in Shashe. Even during the dry season, we receive rainfall which was not common when we first arrived.”

Peter Mudzingwa looking at harvested groundnuts at his father Nelson Mudzingwa’s farm in Shashe, Mashava. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS

Shashe farming area has evolved into a learning area where farmers around Zimbabwe and beyond the borders come to learn agroecology at Shashe Agroecology School, a centre of agroecology, of which Mudzingwa is one of the founders.

Zimbabwe, just like the rest of the southern African region, has been experiencing climate change-induced prolonged droughts and incessant rainfall resulting in floods.

Climate change does not discriminate.

Every living being must pay.

The majority of Zimbabweans live in rural areas, and climate change, caused by human activities, is a major threat to their livelihood.

They rely on agriculture to feed their families as well as earn a living by selling some of the produce.

Government and non-governmental organisations have been working hand in hand to introduce measures that reduce the impacts of climate change.

In Shashe, agroecology farming is basically conserving the land and environment.

This concept involves strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers through the diversification of agroecosystems.

That is organic soil management and water harvesting for conservation.

In the Shashe farming area, smallholder farmers like Mudzingwa grow a variety of food crops, including grains, cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruit trees and medicinal plants.

They also rear livestock, including cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.

The grains such as sorghum, millet and rapoko are drought-resistant crops meaning smallholder farmers can still have a bumper harvest even during droughts.

Everything on the Mudzingwa’s farm is recycled.

“Livestock are our biggest source of manure. We collect crop residues from the fields and feed the cattle. Then we collect waste and make organic manure in compost,” says Mudzingwa, who is an agriculturist by profession.

The smallholder farmers in this area have fish ponds where they farm different species like catfish and breams.

Mudzingwa says fish farming, poultry, and crops depend on each other for survival.

“We feed fish with chicken droppings and worms. We keep worms in the composts we make for manure. The water from the fish ponds after harvesting is channelled to the garden because it is highly nutritious,” he says.

Another smallholder farmer is Elizabeth Mpofu, who has fed and clothed her three children and one grandchild using proceeds from her agroecology venture in the Shashe farming area.

She turned to sustainable farming after realising that rainfed agriculture was no longer viable in this area; she was resettled following the Land Reform Programme in the early 2000s.

The chaotic Land Reform Programme implemented under President Robert Mugabe saw black farmers taking back their land from the few minority white farmers two decades after Zimbabwe gained its independence from the British colonialists.

Just like Mudzingwa, Mpofu is into fish farming, growing drought-resistant crops like millet and sorghum, poultry and water harvesting to conserve moisture in the fields.

Mpofu keeps seeds for the next agriculture season to ensure that traditional grains critical in providing high yields amid climate change do not run into extinction.

Mudzingwa and Mpofu supply other farmers in Shashe and around the country with seeds and pass agroecology knowledge and skills to them.

Mpofu has planted trees and maintained indigenous trees near her plot as part of her reforestation efforts.

Mpofu’s family relies on agroecology.

She keeps some produce for her family after harvesting and sells the excess to other residents in Mashava or Masvingo, the province’s city.

“Agroecology is the way to go. As a woman, I have been able to look after myself and my family,” Mpofu, a widower, tells IPS.

The agroecology initiative in Mashava and Bikita has reached about 500 smallholder farmers, says Simba Guzha, a regional project manager for Voluntary Service Overseas, a charity supporting farmers like Mpofu and Mudzingwa.

Guzha tells IPS that affordable and less resource-input farming practices like agroecology are important to enhance agricultural production and increase food security at the household level.

“In Zimbabwe, agriculture production is mainly rainfed, and smallholder farmers in marginalized areas contribute more than 70 percent of food production in the country, yet they lack they do not have the financial capacity to purchase synthetic inputs.”

“In Mashava, most soils are loamy sands to sandy which are prone to acidification, leaching and poor structure and can barely support plant life, the use of organic fertilisers and green cover crops that bind the soil help to replenish such soils and enhance microbial activity that supports plant life while sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

Guzha says agroecology in Mashava has empowered women and the youth, who are usually marginalised and vulnerable.

“It has enhanced their productive capacity as well as empowered them to have diversified food sources and income-generating activities,” he says.

“Agroecology promotes growing of indigenous or orphan crops and diversity that are well suited to low rainfall areas like Mashava, hence, farmers are guaranteed of getting something in case of severe droughts. It has promoted local diets and culturally acceptable foods that are nutritious and healthy for the local people.”

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In Zimbabwe, Golf Is Giving Cyclone Idai Survivors Hope — Global Issues

Trust Makanidzani survived Cyclone Idai and had his career put on hold during Covid-19 pandemic is back on the greens, but despite his talent, his future depends on the generosity of funders. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
  • by Farai Shawn Matiashe (chimanimani, zimbabwe)
  • Inter Press Service

CHIMANIMANI, Zimbabwe, Apr 11 (IPS) – Trust Makanidzani’s golf practice session with his friends is disrupted by a howling wind and a heavy pelting of water that thundered against rooftops at Chimanimani Golf Course in the eastern part of Zimbabwe.

The downpour that started the previous night continued throughout the day, with a high probability of lasting several days.

This incessant rain and wind remind the 20-year-old of the horror he experienced in March 2019 when Cyclone Idai made landfall.

It got worse when the government issued a notice that Zimbabwe was in the path of Cyclone Freddy, and its massive destruction had already been felt in neighbouring Mozambique and Madagascar.

Cyclone Freddy, the long-lasting tropical storm, went on to wreak havoc in Malawi in March, claiming the lives of more than 430 people, according to government officials.  Regionally at least 600 deaths have been reported. The severity of tropical storms has been attributed to the impacts of climate change.

Makanidzani remembers the night Cyclone Idai visited his village.

“Heavy rains started on Wednesday. I remember I had just returned from Mutare. The rains did not stop. Most people here just thought there was nothing unusual,” Makanidzani, who was aged 16 in 2019, tells IPS.

Then on a Friday, the rains intensified.

Some friends came to seek shelter in Makanidzani’s room as theirs had been filled with water.

“We were now five in the room. As we were about to sleep, there was a bang outside,” he recalls adding that he was dragged for about a kilometre after their house had been washed away by a landslide.

“When I gained consciousness, my whole body was covered under mud and twigs on the banks of a river, (and I was) alone.”

He says he used the light from lightning to see his way to a nearby house where he sought shelter.

“It was dark, and I started feeling nervous,” he says, holding back his tears.

Makanidzani, who was not feeling any pain, collapsed after taking a hot cup of tea only to gain consciousness while admitted at Chimanimani Hospital.

“This is when I realised I had a grave head injury, and my legs and hands were broken,” he says.

At this time, Makanidzani also learned that his three friends had not survived the deadly storm.

Cyclone Idai hit the eastern part of Zimbabwe, including Chipinge and Chimanimani districts in Manicaland Province, from March 15 to 17, 2019, affecting about 270 000 people.

The floods and landslides claimed the lives of 340 people, while many went missing and are still unaccounted for.

Cyclone Idai, which also hit Mozambique and Malawi, displaced about 51 000 people in Zimbabwe.

The World Bank estimates the damages amount to USD 622 million in Zimbabwe.

Makanidzani, who had been playing golf since 2012 under Matsetso Stars Sport to Conservation, was transferred to Chipinge Hospital and later admitted for six months at a hospital about 150 kilometres away in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city.

Before Cyclone Idai came, he was a top junior golfer working to become a professional representing Zimbabwe regionally and internationally.

Makanidzani picked up himself and returned to golf when he was discharged from the hospital, participating in tournaments in Mutare and the capital Harare.

After having his golf career disrupted by Covid-19, which forced the cancellation of the Junior Golf Challenge and the Toyota World Junior Championship in 2021, he was supposed to participate as part of Zimbabwe’s 12-member squad, Makanidzani is now playing as an amateur golfer.

In Zimbabwe, golf is a sport seen by many as only reserved for the elite, and it is rare for young people from remote areas like Chimanimani to play the sport and excel at it.

Some Matsetso stars junior golfers, like 16-year-old Vincent Chidambazina, have gone to play at tournaments beyond the borders.

“I flew to Lukasa, Zambia, to play golf last year. It was my first time being aboard an aeroplane. It was so amazing. I did not even have a passport at the time. I had to apply for one,” says Chidambazina, who was introduced to golf by his nephew when he was still in primary school.

He played at golf tournaments in different parts of the country, including Harare and Bulawayo, the second-largest city.

“It feels good to rub shoulders with the elite and to play better than them. I thought I could not make it considering I am from the rural area, but here I am, one of the top juniors,” says Chidambazina, whose neighbours’ houses were wiped away by Cyclone Idai, leaving his family home intact but shaken.

Makanidzani says funding is holding them back.

“I fail to travel to other cities for golf tournaments due to lack of funds. This is a huge setback to my golf career because if I do not play, I do not get points,” he says.

Makanidzani’s concerns are reiterated by Chidambazina, who says they lack critical resources such as balls, golf clubs and ball markers.

“My family is so supportive, but they are hamstring. They cannot sponsor my trips,” he says.

Jane Lindsay High, who established Matsetso Stars Sport to Conservation in 2010 to help children in the poorest area of Chimanimani who had limited access to sports facilities and qualified coaches with resources, says they rely on donor funding.

“Donor funding is never a sustainable way of development,” says High, who is also the owner and manager of Frog and Fern Cottages in Chimanimani.

“But in the absence of trusted political leadership at the community level, then one way of helping is for trusted individuals to seek assistance.”

Since 2010 some 100 children have been introduced to golf, and of those, approximately 17 have represented Manicaland at the provincial level while two at the national level, shows figures from High.

In Zimbabwe, golf personalities like professional golfer Robson Chinhoi and Biggie Chibvuri are earning a living from playing golf.

Trust Makanidzani and Vincent Chidambazina with other golf players after their training session was disrupted by heavy rain in Chimanimani in March. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS

“Most of these kids are talented. Golf provides many opportunities. Golf players can get scholarships. Both golf and education are the keys to success in golf, says Matsetso Stars Sport to Conservation golf coach Amos Kunyerezera who has been playing golf for decades, launching his career at a popular hotel in the Vumba Mountains, sandwiched at the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Martin Chikwanha, president of the Zimbabwe Golf Association, says funding for golf and any sport in Zimbabwe has not been the best.

“This is because of the economic challenges that the country is going through. Most of the golf activities are funded by the Zimbabwe Golf Association or Zimbabwe Junior Golf Association. Members pay subscription fees. We also have funding from our international partners,” he says, adding that they do not receive any funding from the government.

Chikwanha tells IPS they are running a programme where they provide funding to junior golf players in areas like Chimanimani to facilitate their participation in golf national, regional and international golf tournaments.

He says they have come up with a programme called “train the trainer”  to ensure that golf is taken to the rural areas.

“This is to ensure that we spread the word and we try to find those little diamonds from everywhere throughout the country,” he says.

“But it is difficult because of the nature of the sport once the diamond has been discovered; the diamond can only play at a golf course. So some kids in areas like Buhera can only play at their nearest golf course, which is Mutare,” Chikwanha said, noting that it takes a huge amount of funding for the children to participate.

Chikwanha says golf courses are not a common feature in comparison to football, where you can find a football ground everywhere in Zimbabwe.

“Golf courses are always specific to places. Once you reach the golf course, you also need equipment which is something that you need money to pay for. But that is doable. We try to support those with interest. Golf is not an elite sport. It is open to everyone,” he says.

Makanidzani, clad in black trousers and a white sweater, hopes to travel around Africa and beyond representing Zimbabwe.

“It is my wish that I secure a sponsorship. So that I can play as an amateur golfer and later become a professional playing at an international level,” he says.

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In Zimbabwe, Economic Crisis Pushes Underaged Girls to Sex Work — Global Issues

The continuing economic crisis and high women’s unemployment have resulted in many underaged girls turning to sex work in Zimbabwe. In the area near Penhalonga, the girls target artisanal miners in the region. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
  • by Farai Shawn Matiashe (mutare, zimbabwe)
  • Inter Press Service

MUTARE, ZIMBABWE, Feb 23 (IPS) – After other adolescent girls her age have gone to bed at around 10 pm, Kudzai commutes to a shopping centre near her home in Penhalonga, a mining area 25 kilometres outside the third largest Zimbabwean city of Mutare, to look for men to solicit sex.

Clad in a black and white skirt with its hemline well above the knees, the 15-year-old Kudzai, whose first name is being used to conceal her identity, is whispering a prayer to God for her night to pay off in this gold-rich area located in Manicaland Province near the porous border with neighbouring Mozambique.

Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis has forced Kudzai into the sex trade, and most of her clients are illegal and artisanal gold miners – they, too pushed into mining by the economic malaise coupled with a high unemployment rate of over 90 percent – to earn a living.

She usually returns home early in the morning the following day after spending the whole night working.

“This is how I survive,” says Kudzai, who stays with her elder sister in Tsvingwe, a peri-urban residential area in Penhalonga.

“I dropped out of school last year during COVID-19. My sister, who has been paying for my school fees all these years, could not afford it anymore.”

There are over 1,000 mining pits in the Redwing Mine concession in Penhalonga, owned by a South African mining firm Metallon Corporation.

The mining rights in this concession were allegedly illegally taken by a gold baron Pedzisai ‘Scott’ Sakupwanya, through his company Betterbrands Mining.

Sakupwanya, a ruling party Zanu PF councillor for Mabvuku Ward 21 in the capital Harare, is also the owner of a gold-buying company, Better Brands Jewellery.

His dealings are exposed in a 35-page report by the Centre for Natural Resource Governance, a local civil society organisation that defends the rights of communities affected by extractive industries in Zimbabwe.

Amid an economic struggle, many girls in Penhalonga and surrounding areas have turned to the sex trade to eke a living.

The artisanal and illegal miners often take advantage of these minors to sexually abuse and exploit them.

Some underage girls trade sex for as little as 1 United States dollar.

Sex work is illegal in Zimbabwe.

In 2015, sex workers got relief after a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe that a woman could not be arrested for soliciting sex by merely being in a bar or nightclub.

The legal age of consent is currently 16, but this year the Constitutional Court ruled that it should be raised to 18 years.

But underage girls like Kudzai, with no options for other work, have ventured into the trade and mining areas are hotspots.

Zimbabweans have been through tumultuous times.

High inflation induced by a worsening economic crisis due to the shock of COVID-19 and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused the cost of living to rise rapidly.

But before this, Zimbabwe was in an economic crisis due to massive corruption and economic mismanagement blamed on the Mnangagwa-led government.

This dire economic reality leaves low-income families like Kudzai’s among those worst affected. Worse because the natural resources, such as gold in Penhalonga, benefit only the elite, and the companies don’t seem to be doing much to give back to the community.

Kudzai sometimes sheds a tear, worrying about her bleak and uncertain future.

“I cannot save much money. This is just hand-to-mouth business,” she says.

With 59,6 percent of women in the country unemployed, many are turning to sex work to earn a living, according to a recent survey by the State-controlled Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat).

According to the CNRG report, illicit financial flows in the artisanal mining sector in Zimbabwe are responsible for leakages of an estimated 3 tonnes of gold, valued at approximately $157 million every month.

Most of the gold is smuggled through the porous borders in Mutare to Mozambique and South Africa.

Weston Makoni, a chairman at Penhalonga Residents and Ratepayers Trust, says the situation of girls turning to sex work in his community is worrisome.

“Mainly the push factors are poverty, lack of food, peer pressure and need of school fees money,” he says.

“They are lured by artisanal miners who have cash at hand regularly to buy them food, valuables such as smartphones, drugs and take them out for entertainment.”

Tapuwa O’bren Nhachi, a social scientist, says it’s unfortunate because disease, abuse and trauma now determine these adolescent girls’ life.

“It also means psychological effects that are associated with the trade.  The same girls are also dropping out of school and engaging in drugs which has a negative impact on their future,” he says.

According to the Centre for Sexual Health, HIV and Aids Research (CeSHHAR), more than 57 percent of female sex workers in the country are HIV positive.

Another 15-year-old girl Tanaka says some of her clients are violent, and they often refuse to pay her.

“We meet different people at work. Some refuse to use protection while others do not even want to pay for the services rendered,” says Tanaka, whose only first name is used to protect her.

Makoni says the companies mining in Penhalonga should give back to the surrounding communities to help the poor.

“I basically believe that the companies would greatly assist the girl child in the community by providing school fees to those that are from poor families and mostly orphans,” he says.

“They could help by engaging the community in livelihood projects, making households self-reliant.”

Betterbrands Mining company and Redwing Mine officials did not respond to questions sent to them by this publication.

Nhachi says companies have unlimited responsibilities to ensure that communities they operate in are not deprived of social and public goods, such as affordable education, health facilities and other important infrastructure.

“Companies should create vocational training facilities to prepare the youths for future employment opportunities not only for them but anywhere around the country,” he says.

“Unfortunately, companies that are operating in Penhalonga are mafia styled. They are looting and thriving in the chaos existing in the country, so we should not expect much from them,”

Kudzai says if given an opportunity to return to school, she is ready and willing.

“I do not intend to spend the rest of my life like this. I hope to train as a nurse,” she says.

Note: IPS approached Pedzisai Sakupwanya and Redwing Mine corporate manager Knowledge Hofisi for comment, but they did not get back to us. We asked them for following questions.

  1. Leaders of residents associations in Penhalonga have said adolescent girls surrounding your mine are being driven by poverty to venture into the sex trade. We are just checking with you to see if you are running any programmes to support people, including young girls in Penhalonga and its surrounding areas.
  2. What is it that you are doing to give back to the community? Residents have been complaining of poor infrastructure in the area.

 

IPS UN Bureau Report


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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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