'Women should stop pulling each other down'

OUSTED MDC-T deputy president Thokozani Khupe's ally, Abednico Bhebhe, has lashed out at female politicians for betraying the Makokoba MP in her fight against Nelson Chamisa for control of the opposition party.

Speaking at an event to drum up moral and spiritual support for Khupe in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Bhebhe said women should decide for the world and stop pulling each other down.

"At times I get extremely disappointed with women. You have the powers that you were given by God but you can't use them. If you know the father of the child you are carrying in the womb, surely you should decide for the whole world. My problem is you can't decide for the whole world," he said.

"Now the biggest and worst enemy is not a man, your biggest enemy is yourself. They are so many women's organisations here in Zimbabwe, and you know that Khupe was recently attacked by men, not by women. She has been attacked three times and I happened to be there, but with so many women's organisations, we are not hearing your voices. Every time I hear some gossip going around, I am not hearing it from men, but I hear it from women. Those that are attacking Khupe the loudest are women. One woman came out saying this country is not ready to be ruled by a woman. I almost fell down, this is a woman saying that to another woman."

Bhebhe, who was recently expelled from the MDC-T alongside Khupe and former party spokesperson, Obert Gutu, said the world will continue to be poor as long as women were being side-lined from mainstream politics.

"I was expecting to see a lot of women representatives here to support one another, I want to see the chief executives from these organisations. They are so many of them in Zimbabwe but they are not here or you are only here standing in for men representing women in a women's organisation, but they are actually men's organisations. We want to see women supporting each other and if you can't support one another, then we have a challenge."

Bhebhe said in his constituency in Nkayi South, out of 16 wards, only five were led by women councillors.

"Guess why I feel so angry about you women, within our political party there is a quota system, where we are saying 50-50 representation, as an organiser of that organisation," he said.

Bhebhe claimed that he had managed to push and assist the five women, but they were later labelled as his girlfriends. "Then who is the enemy of a woman," he said.
Event organiser, Loreen Ncube said she had invited several female executives to the function, but the majority did not respond.

"I sent invites to some of the women organisations, but they did not respond. I have been disappointed really because they are so many women's organisations in Zimbabwe and they have not stood up and taken a stand to say this is wrong.

"They have almost said it's an MDC thing and this meeting is really to say, this must stop. We need to move forward and stand up when anything wrong is done and we should all condemn it.

"We are not standing with Khupe because she is a saint but we are supporting her because she needs it. We need to put aside our differences within our parties, regions and we move forward within Zimbabwe and say whatever happens to one women, we will support and make her make sure if there is injustice to her, it should be corrected," she said.