Politicians must stop imposing women's quota reps

Political parties have been challenged to stop imposing women's quota representatives and to allow women from all sections of society to choose those that they want to represent them.

The call was made by a human rights activist, Abigail Mupambi who said the constitution requirements must be upheld to ensure that women truly benefit from the quota system.

Mupambi a statement accused male political leaders of imposing women's quota representatives.

"Women should constitute a forum that will select women representatives from provinces to represent them in parliament.  Where are those being selected by political parties getting the concerns of women who are sending them to parliament and councils?," she said.

Mupambi said it is clear that they are not representing us women but they represent those men who lead the political parties they are coming from.

She said the issue of women's quota, six women from each province, if things are to be fair, women, say in Matabeleland North, must constitute a forum that can second six women to represent them in parliament if it is about women.

"It should not be a political party- women. So now those people went to parliament, they are seated, they are not speaking about women  issues, who will question them."

"Political parties should not impose women's representation in the quota system but should only field them into contested seats if they love them that much rather than to impose them in the quota system," she said.

"These people get imposed to represent us yet we did not select them. Who is selecting that women's quota? We do not have a say on who is being selected, this is a scam."

She said colleagues in Zanu PF enjoy this, colleagues in CCC enjoy this.

"Now Tshabangu is the one who tells people  that in the women's quota we are removing so and so and replacing her with so and so. Who is he to impose women leaders on us? There is no criteria on  how women should participate in the selection of who should represent them," Mupambi said.

She said the women affairs ministry should administer the women quota system selection.

"We advocated for the women' s quota because the political parties were sidelining us. Political parties are a problem. This is why we advocated for a women's quota system because political parties were not giving us a chance. Now we take the same opportunity we gave a political party to control the selection again, it means we are not going anywhere," Mupambi said.

She said for her there has been no women representation and what is happening is a scam, it's a very good idea wrongly implemented.

"Give power to women to elect and second representatives of their own. We have women in  business, women in religion, women in culture, women in arts, those are women who can choose who they want in parliament to speak their issues," Mupambi said.

"Political parties must stay away from imposing women representatives in which men give positions to their girlfriends and this is a big scam. When we pushed for a women's quota as Zimbabwean women, our plea was for increased women's representation in Parliament. Instead, we got 60 political party representatives. Literally, we still have no direct representation of women in Parliament to this day."

Mupambi said the reason why they lobbied for a women's quota was because they were running away from political parties  in which men send their loved ones who are useless.

"Zanu PF can choose to impose women in constituencies. Why do we have Tshabanbgu seconding women and disciplining others, these women prove to be Tshabangu's women, Mnagangwa's women and Nelson Chamisa's women. We want women who are seconded by us women, who are answerable to us," she said.

"If political parties were so good, why did they not give us positions in their constituencies?"

Section 124 (b) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for the women Qouta system of 60 seats in Parliament which are given to each political party based on their tally of votes in the House of Assembly elections for each province, six from each of the provinces.

Citizens Coalition for Change self imposed Secretary General Sengezo Tshabangu recently recalled three proportional representation councillors namely Binga rural district councillors Noliya Dube and Julia Mumpande and Victoria Falls counterpart Maria Phiri.