It's time to say NO to Sexism

A recent article in Newsday by a reader called Pardon Maguta is a clear demonstration of the uphill struggle women still face in Zimbabwe. The article, titled "Khupe must accept Chamisa's ascendancy" is rife with lowly sexist remarks and innuendo.

Using terms like "cat-fight" attempt to delegitimiseMDC party deputy president Thokozani Khupe in her legitimate struggle with the ostensible president of the MDC Nelson Chamisa.

Maguta, like many others in Chamisa's camp, has basically told Khupe to back off from the leadership.

Trying to rally support for unity before the elections, the writer has become part of the MDC camp which is trying to bully and intimidate Khupe, and in essence, all women, by basically siding with the tyrant Chamisa because he screams louder and uses aggressive tactics to get what he wants.

Chamisa's campaign, run largely by his proxies, including the sinister ‘Vanguard' militia, is to intimidate, silence and suppress women leaders like Khupe, and make them beholden to the MDC president's whims.

Unfortunately, too many in my MDC party have become complicit in these excesses, even when Khupe was almost killed during the funeral of our beloved former president, Morgan Tsvangirai.

No women in our movement are free from Chamisa'saggression, even Morgan Tsvangirai's mother, Lydia, was even recorded saying she will kill herself if Chamisa shows up at the funeral of her son.

Lydia was right to be concerned as all speeches and eulogies at the funeral were drowned out by Chamisa's hooligans who booed Khupe throughout.

We have endured decades of repression in Zimbabwe, and rather than offering hope for all citizens of a more open and freer future, MDC's leaders, either by their silence or acquiescence to Chamisa's bullying tactics, are ensuring that the female half of the country will continue to suffer from oppression and repression.

True MDC freedom fighters must step forward and challenge the rampant sexism that permeates great parts of the leadership of our party.

Women must be seen as complete equals and we should never allow a woman to be delegitimised in the way the vice-president has, purely because she is a woman and has not resorted to the "un-African, uncultured and barbaric" tactics, to borrow Khupe's own words, which are currently undertaken.

While those like Maguta use the terminology of unity to try and have Khupe bow out of the leadership struggle, it would be far better to use terms like equality, freedom and peace.

These are the building blocks of a new Zimbabwe and should be the resolute foundations of our post-Tsvangirai MDC. I am certain that Morgan is turning in his grave over the abuse that women in his party are currently experiencing.

So no, Maguta, Khupe should not step aside just because her opponent used aggression, violence and intimidation to assume the party presidency, while she tended to Tsvangirai and his family in South Africa during his final days.

Let's give Khupe, a politician with vision and a solid agenda, the chance to take the helm of the MDC and watch our people flock behind her in the upcoming elections. Men and women alike.

I am not saying that she should be appointed leader based on her gender, but our opponents should stop trying to push her out of the way solely because of the fact that she is female.

It is time to stop the rampant sexism percolating in the MDC and judge each person according to their merits and each given a fair chance to lead us free of prejudice and aggression.