Dumiso Dabengwa's speech over the weekend

Remarks at the joint opening of conferences: Zimbabwe African Women Union (Zawu) & Zapu Youth Front.

Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa, President, ZAPU

Pelandaba Hall, Bulawayo, 6 April 2013

Ms. Emilia Mukaratirwa, ZAPU Vice-President
Dr. Strike Mkandla, Alternate Secretary General
Mr. Isaac Mabuka, Chairman, National People's Council (NPC)
Mr. Lloyd Nyakabangwe, Chairman, Council of Elders
Members of the National Executive (NEC) present
Members of the NPC present
Members of the Council of Elders present
Delegates from all over the country and from the Diaspora Region

Today is a special day in several ways, not least because this is the first national conference of each of our two wings of our party, i.e. the Zimbabwe African Women's Union (ZAWU) and the ZAPU Youth Front. While have witnessed the dynamism of women and youth in our processes in the main structure, we appreciate that the two wings have been hampered by resource constraints that prevented them from putting up a coordinating mechanism at the national level.  

ZAPU women inside the country and in the Diaspora have in the last eighteen months pushed for a women's conference even in the face of formidable economic difficulties that would have discouraged less determined groups. Our youth have similarly been vocal in reminding the national leaders that the more prosperous future we have been striving for is largely going to be lived by them.

Comrades and friends!
ZAWU has chosen a most appropriate theme for this conference: "Women, This is Our Time"! This theme is timely because it draws attention to the need for highlighting the contributions by the women of this country to our struggle for liberation and independence as well as to backstopping and even leading the survival of generations through all manner of economic and social deprivations. In the early phases of our armed struggle there were no women in the frontline. This often masks the fact that our guerrillas would never have survived if it was not for the bravery of the mothers and daughters who quite often experienced torture and even faced death for concealing and feeding our fighters. It is no surprise, therefore, that when the time came the women got fed up with being sitting targets and took guns themselves alongside the men.

Over thirty years of independence has yet to change the dominant pattern in which public policy has failed to adequately recognize the hidden strength and contribution of women to the social fabric and to formations across the political spectrum.  In the case of ZAPU, women have also experienced what can be described as a double yoke because they bore the brunt of repression directed at our members in the early years of independence. Mothers, sisters and daughters of the soil, I want to thank you at this juncture for your iron determination in helping the party to reclaim its place after being "swallowed" for a quarter of a century by the ruling party following the use of state power to coerce Dr. Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, the party's founder, into the 1987 accord. You will recall that our founding President was forced into this unequal union in order to stop the post-independence carnage directed at ZAPU party members. You will also recall that this repression also had genocidal tendencies in the south of the country - the infamous "Gukurahundi" - and therefore had the potential to destroy national cohesion.

The culture of violence behind gross violation of women's rights has left an unwelcome stain because the disproportionate abuse and humiliation of women in that campaign has not been officially acknowledged and redressed. I want to salute the gallant women of Zimbabwe, many of them once again organized in ZAWU, for their role in keeping the fire burning and re-stoking the flames of political change that should eventually lead to their total emancipation from patriarchal violence and living in fear.

The new Zimbabwean constitution has attempted to undo some of the built-in disadvantages of women in Zimbabwean society. However, concentration of power at the center of government militates against total emancipation of women because it denies them significant control over productive resources. I am here referring to the half slice of devolved government that has been given. This is something that ZAPU intends to pursue now that basic changes have been agreed that represent a departure from the Lancaster House constitution.

Turning to the youth, it has been said countless times that you are the leaders of tomorrow. Tomorrow starts now, because you will always be younger than your elders! There are many in our country who have become used to being old "youths" because they have not prepared for a relay in political leadership. One lesson of the liberation struggle is that youth can lead in action and change the environment of decision-making through selfless commitment to a cause. The challenge for you is to find ways of translating gains from previous generations into a continuous ladder to meet your current and future needs.  ZAPU is committed to your advancement, so that the policies of government do not lead to lack of jobs and flight of vital skills to neighboring countries. We also want to see an end to the misuse of young people as agents of political violence, something which is an antithesis to what we fought for.

Today when you end the day we look forward to the election of your national leaderships that will build on the foundations of what has over the last three years been built at the local and provincial levels.

Finally, I want to thank the teams here and in the Diaspora that have been engaged over the last few weeks in ensuring that these concurrent conferences take place against all the odds.

Thank you.