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
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