Research Findings Zimbabwe Peace Project Women politicians who sought recourse to justice after experiencing VAWP include the few educated female MPs and women in organisations dealing with politics available who understood mechanisms for the their protection. In 2022, Fadzai Mahere, the Citizens Coalition for Change Spokesperson sued Edmund Kudzai for defamation, after he accused her of dating a married Harare businessman. Figure 11: Perceptions of women on the availability of remedies to combat VAWP in Zimbabwe The case is still pending. Other women who reported their cases to the police complained that the turnaround time for dealing with them is very long. This is particularly for cases where perpetrators are from the ruling party. Most of the women victims of VAWP whom ZPP reached out to during this research (including those that were raped, abducted and tortured) are yet to get justice. The women that were subjected to online VAWP stated that jurisprudence on VAWP is very embryonic in Zimbabwe. The law enforcers themselves lack training, expertise and experience on the new provisions of the 2021 Cyber and data protection Act and in apprehending and prosecuting perpetrators of online violence against women in politics. Although there is support for the 2021 Act, there are questions as to who it is made for. Some women, while welcoming the Act and its potential to curb online violence against women in politics, wondered if it was created to benefit them or to protect men from embarrassment. One woman said: “I think this was put into place for men because over the last years, there has been a lot of exposure on social media. Because these things have been happening to Zimbabwean women since time immemorial, left, right and centre, but suddenly, in the last I'd say 2 to 3 years, there's been an increase in the number of people coming [online to discuss private affairs]. I think [name] was one of the women who came online and shared. A whole list of sexual activities with various powerful men. And suddenly a bunch of powerful men think wow, we really need to look at this whole data protection. We need to take this seriously” 11 The majority of women politicians who were not currently serving in parliament, including local Councillors, were not aware of any policies or laws that protected them from VAWP. As a result, they suffered in silence without any recourse to justice. Women politicians who managed to report cases of online VAWP complained of the difficulties faced by law enforcement when it comes to apprehending abusers. This is because social media is free and allows abusers to create accounts with fake details. Zimbabwean law enforcers treat the physical offline violence perpetrated against people in politics far more seriously than the online violence faced by women politicians. 11. Women in Politics in Zimbabwe: How gender norms are fueling online violence, Nehanda Centre for Gender Studies, September 2023 23

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