by Zivanai Dhewa
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged his unwavering support for women. Speaking at the Progressive Women in Business (PROWEB), breakfast meeting this morning at a local hotel in town, President Mnangagwa urged women to uplift each other.
“As a member of SADC, Zimbabwe signed and adopted the SADC Member States undertaking, enshrined in the SADC Treaty Article 6(2), not to discriminate against any person on the grounds of inter alia, sex or gender. As such, my Government undertakes to support women in every sector of the economy,” said President Mnangagwa.
“However, gender equality in Cabinet is not an event but a process; members can only be selected from parliament, for that to be achieved only if political parties field more women for Parliament,” he said.
The President said the different demographic representations such as the youths, women and the disabled were very critical in his cabinet, albeit requiring nomination from Parliament.
“Youths want to be represented in Cabinet, and currently we have two that we managed to select from Parliament, but we have no representative for the disabled as there are none in Parliament,” he said.
He added: “We have more women deputies in the Ministries and five women and four men as Ministers of State.”
The President further urged women to bring forward issues of concern and proposals they wish addressed, and touched on the issue of tenders.
“If your proposals are progressive, I will make sure they are taken on board. However, we will consider them based on merit, and ability to provide a state of the art, top of the range service, definitely we will support it.
“Organise yourselves in your profiles to show you know what you are doing and we will give you the opportunity,” President Mnangagwa said.
President Mnangagwa called on the women in the Diaspora to come back and help build the nation. He emphasised that from the brain drain that the country suffered in the previous years, the return of the diaspora community will assist in brain gain.
