14 Jun 2023

Inclusion of women is key in achieving democracy as they will be able to participate in all political decision making platforms, Women in Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Director Ms Fadzai Traquino has said.

Ms Traquino noted that women knew all kinds of needs and that their motherly instincts made them more understanding to certain situations.

She was speaking at the WLSA Cross Generational Capacity Session for Women in Gaborone on Tuesday. “Issues of social welfare, health, service delivery, sexual rights, reproductive roles, education and natural resources are natural things that women do,” she said, saying in that way it would be possible to align with such to bring service delivery to the people.

She therefore urged young women in politics to be engaged inclusively in the political arena so that they be empowered to assume positions of authority.

She pointed out that if women were politically inclined, most of the social ills would be addressed.

Gaborone Block 3 Itumeleng Ward Councillor Ms Motamma Horatius said women constitute to a larger number of percentage  worldwide, but they remain far from the goal of gender parity.

Ms Horatius urged women to go beyond seating at tables and to be seen as chairpersons not secretaries. She said if women were in high positions they would be able to incorporate their perspective at every stage of the planning and implementation.

“Women should be active participants at the policy making table, to bring that change,” she said. Ms Horatius also said women political participation was a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy.

“It facilitates women’s direct engagement in public decision making and is a means of ensuring better accountability to women”

Her counterpart Francistown Councillor Ms Nametso Griesmier said women were still lagging behind in participation of political activities.

Ms Griesmier pointed out that large corporations were dominated by male leadership, saying despite women involvement in politics, their activeness continued to shrink. She said there had been regression over the years, adding that now in Africa women represented only 30 per cent and below in politics.

“Currently there is no seating woman Head of State in SADC, and numbers of women members of Parliament and councilors is also low,” she said.

WLSA Zimbabwe and Botswana hosted a cross Generational Capacity Session for women Leaders and Youth Activities on women’s political participation.

The workshop was meant to foster learning, experience sharing and mentoring an intergenerational dialogue to be used as a tool to bridge the generational gap in Zimbabwe and Botswana on political leadership and activism.ENDS