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'It baffles to notice that all principals in Grand coalition are men'
24 Aug 2017 at 06:33hrs | Views
An MDC official based in South Africa has expressed some reservations as to why all the principals in the grand coalition under the name MDC alliance are men when the political arena has women.
Descent Collins Bajila he surely can't deny the fact that it's bad that all the Principals of the Alliance are male.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader Welshman Ncube, People's Democratic Party leader Tendai Biti and many other leaders from small parties who are male recently signed a grand coalition to challenge President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF in the 2018 elections as a combined force.
"It is bad. I am strongly of the view that no society can achieve modern development if 52% of itself is reduced to marginal roles or completely excluded the development discourse. However, we have to look into the route to where we are, think globally and act locally," he said.
"First of all, the struggle for gender equality should never be allowed to be reduced to a Men-are-crap society primarily because such an omission will demobilise supportive men and conservative women. It should be a struggle for ensuring that the 52% of our society have adequate spaces and voices in the life of the society they live in."
He said the United States of America was established in 1776 and has been a ground for the battle of much of humanity's civil rights.
"From the fight against slavery, to racial equality to gender equality. However up to today they are yet to have a woman President. That has never meant that they are a sexist society. Women are freer and more successful in the US than in countries that have had women Presidents like Argentina, Phillipines, Malawi and Liberia," he said.
"The issue of the Alliance is that of constituent leadership. The parties that signed the agreement are led by men. It is not like men are ganging up against women. I am sure if a woman led political party subscribed to the same vision with those who signed the agreement, it would sign and be a member."
He said just as world governments can't send women ministers to the United Nations General Assembly for the sake of having equal numbers at the summit, constituent parties couldn't send anyone other than their Presidents to represent them at that level.
Descent Collins Bajila he surely can't deny the fact that it's bad that all the Principals of the Alliance are male.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader Welshman Ncube, People's Democratic Party leader Tendai Biti and many other leaders from small parties who are male recently signed a grand coalition to challenge President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF in the 2018 elections as a combined force.
"It is bad. I am strongly of the view that no society can achieve modern development if 52% of itself is reduced to marginal roles or completely excluded the development discourse. However, we have to look into the route to where we are, think globally and act locally," he said.
He said the United States of America was established in 1776 and has been a ground for the battle of much of humanity's civil rights.
"From the fight against slavery, to racial equality to gender equality. However up to today they are yet to have a woman President. That has never meant that they are a sexist society. Women are freer and more successful in the US than in countries that have had women Presidents like Argentina, Phillipines, Malawi and Liberia," he said.
"The issue of the Alliance is that of constituent leadership. The parties that signed the agreement are led by men. It is not like men are ganging up against women. I am sure if a woman led political party subscribed to the same vision with those who signed the agreement, it would sign and be a member."
He said just as world governments can't send women ministers to the United Nations General Assembly for the sake of having equal numbers at the summit, constituent parties couldn't send anyone other than their Presidents to represent them at that level.
Source - Byo24News
