The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
A local organisation, Women in Law Southern Africa Zimbabwe has commended the action taken by wives of Hwange Colliery Company who have been protesting against the company management for failure to pay their husbands’ salaries.
In a statement issued as part of commemoration of the International Women Day held last week, the organisation said the stance by the women was a bold move that show that women’s issues still needed to be addressed in society.
“As we commemorate the International Women’s Day, it is imperative for us to acknowledge the fact that the plight of the women folk still cries out for redress. Amid the struggles women are confronted with, we are heartened by the resolve of a group of women in Hwange who stood eyeball to eyeball against a seemingly indomitable opposition.
“Yet to our astonishment they withstood a barrage of blows delivered on them,” said WLSA.
“This remarkable group of women said to themselves enough was enough and went on to challenge their spouses’ employer, Hwange Colliery Company, which owes their spouses salaries back dated to 2013. They staged a sustained demonstration outside the company premises much to the annoyance of the coal mining company management.”
The organisation, however, said it was pleasing that in some areas of life, great steps to empower women have been made.
“As WLSA Zimbabwe celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day with women in Hwange, their ability to organise themselves, come together and speak with one voice that they demand their husbands unpaid salaries for over a period of five years is a huge milestone in terms of women building agency and women holding duty bearers to account,” they said.
This year’s United Nations International Women’s Day theme is “Time is now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives.”
WLSA Zimbabwe celebrated this year’s IWD with Hwange women in Hwange yesterday.
In a statement to commemorate the day, the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development said the Government has shown commitment in achieving women empowerment through the signing and ratification of a number of regional and international conventions and protocols that aimed to promote and acknowledge the rights of women and to achieve gender equality.
“These conventions include Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR).There is also the Equal Remuneration Convention (ERC), Dakar Platform for Action, Beijing Declaration of 1995, Sadc Declaration on Gender and Development with its Addendum on Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children, the Millennium Declaration of 2000 and the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development,” said the ministry.
