The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
SHE is known as “the lady who grabbed power” in Hauna.
Loved by many and loathed by some, during the 2018 harmonised elections Councillor Hwiridzai Gurure battled it out against a strong male opponent who had held the councillorship position for 10 years in Ward Two of Mutasa North constituency.
Councillor Gurure is an unsung hero, a soft spoken 50-year-old achiever who risked everything she had, including her reputation, profession and marriage to represent fellow women in Local Government.
But like others before her, Councillor Gurure suffered a lot of ridicule on social media after being labelled a woman of loose morals not fit to hold a public office.
Online smear campaigns against her, allegedly instigated by her political rivals, were all over the internet, resulting in her losing her job as a nurse aide and bringing to an end her 10-year-old marriage.
Fortunately, despite all the online harassments that went on unpunished for months, Councillor Gurure stood her ground and won the council seat, which she proudly occupies today as she tells her tale of victory.
Living in a virtual society is making it easier for people to commit violence without facing any consequences, and women with voices, particularly politicians, have become the main targets of online violence.
Councillor Gurure and many others have not been spared.
“I endured a lot during the campaign period and lost my family through cyber-bullying. I almost threw in the towel, having been fed up with the lies that were being peddled against me on social media. Besides losing my marriage, I ended up losing my job as well.
“My husband swallowed hook, line and sinker the online falsehoods and we had to part ways.
“He stopped taking care of the family, telling me that it was now my responsibility to do so as I had decided to plunge into the political minefield. The online harassments almost destroyed my life, but I emerged victorious,” she said.
The extension of offline violence to online and the fear of online bullying, among other forms of harassments, has no doubt become the chief dissuasion to many Zimbabwean women who harbour aspirations of squaring it out in the political ring.
While some male politicians are also being harassed online, when women are the target, online harassment escalates and quickly descends into sexualised hate or threats, according to the United Nations Women Report on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls of 2020.
Unlike Councillor Gurure and other politicians, many aspiring female politicians, especially those in rural Zimbabwe, end up giving up hope and rubbishing thoughts of ever joining politics.
While the UN is urging governments to commit themselves to enhance women’s and girls’ online safety and is supporting women’s organisations to strengthen their advocacy efforts, local female politicians have taken it upon themselves to speak against cyber-bullying in their constituencies.
Partnered with Women in Politics, Mutasa North Constituency legislator, Cde Chido Madiwa has embarked on capacity building sessions with women to encourage them to participate in politics despite all the challenges that might come with it, the major one being cyber-bullying.
She is also a victim of online harassment.
“With Women in Politics, we have been knocking on doors in Mutasa North and we always tell these women not to give up on their dreams and to be confident. Politics is a matter of confidence because the moment you lose even an ounce of that confidence, you will succumb to bullying.
“Because of patriarchy, most people, men and women included, still do not believe in female leadership and because of their big egos, they turn to social media and use it to discourage females from participating in politics.
“We have all been called names online, the most common being the ‘prostitute’ label. We have all been there, but most of us came out unscathed and that is the message we will be preaching in Mutasa,” said Cde Madiwa.
She said usually an online troll’s goal is to de-campaign and destroy the victim, but one needs to stand tall and conquer all.
Cde Madiwa is a mentor and an inspiration to most Mutasa women.
“I always tell the women during our sessions that I have faced the same challenges because I am a woman and they should let me mentor and inspire them.
“Basically what these women need is support and assurance that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Zimbabwe is a signatory of the Minamata Convention since 2013. The convention is compliant with Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, with declarations aimed at increasing women’s participation in decision-making processes.
SDG Goal Five calls for gender equality and it states that by 2030, member states, including Zimbabwe, are to have achieved gender equality and empowered all women and girls.
This includes equality in all spheres and to achieve this goal, cyber-bullying needs to be dealt with.
While there has been progress over the last decades, with more women serving in Parliament and in positions of leadership, many challenges remain, chief among them being the pervasive social norms and the under-representation of women at all levels of political leadership.
According to UN Women, in 46 countries, women now hold more than 30 percent of seats in national parliaments in at least one chamber.
Worldwide, women’s representation in national parliaments which sits at 23,7 percent is still far from parity.
Zimbabwean women in parliament are at 34 percent, thanks to the quota of 60 seats set aside for women through proportional representation.
In 2013, the figure stood at 16 percent.
In an interview with The Manica Post, the Zimbabwe Local Government Association (ZILGA) president, Alderman David Guy Mutasa said although women are the majority of voters in Zimbabwe, they have under-represented in Local Government.
He said only 14 percent of council seats across the nation are held by women.
“Nationwide, we have around 14 percent females in Local Government, yet women constitute more than half of Zimbabwe’s population and voters.
“Instead of women electing their peers into office, they often put their faith in men because of that small rumour they would have come across on Twitter or Facebook. These rumours are often fake but very few bother to check.
“In a typical Zimbabwean community, when a woman stands up and decides to take up a leadership role, she is castigated and given all sorts of names,” he said.
Alderman Mutasa said ZILGA has been holding capacity building workshops with women and encouraging them to vote their peers into office.
“While we have to respect the law and wait on the relevant authorities to make arrests on cyber-bullies, there is need for capacity development workshops to teach women to stand up against online harassments. ZILGA has been doing that for some time now.
“What you should know is that no one is safe from these online bullies. Even established female parliamentarians have been there and some are still being tortured online on a daily basis, not because they have done anything bad, but because there are people out there who just believe in spoiling someone’s reputation on the internet,” he said.
Mutare North legislator, who is also Transport and Infrastructural Development Deputy Minister, Cde Mike Madiro argued that women are pulling each other down through cyber-bullying.
“We have female thugs who will not allow other women to lead. They turn to social media to character assassinate their rivals and peers,” he said.
“This is all wrong and should stop because we need women in decision making positions and this is why President Mnangagwa approved the extension of the quota system to Local Government at the recently held Women Councillors Indaba. Cabinet approved a plan to allocate 30 percent of the seats in Local Government to women.
“This is meant to ensure that we attain the 50-50 balance at Local Government level,” said Deputy Minister Madiro.
He said women’s participation at all levels is critical.
