HARARE - Four female Zimbabwean victims of sexual violence during last years controversial presidential run-off election will this week petition the South African Development Community (SADC) to act on their matter which has so been ignored by the Harare government. SADC leaders hold a summit in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week where the situation in Zimbabwe is expected to come up for discussion.
In 2008, political violence erupted throughout Zimbabwe as a result of highly contested national elections. Between May and July alone, local organizations estimate that state-sanctioned groups abducted, raped, tortured, and beat over 2,000 women and girls due to their political affiliations.
Local police have ignored these women’s pleas for justice, and accountability, and national leaders have been equally unresponsive.
“Where is justice for poor Zimbabwean women who continue to suffer sexual and gender based violence in the hands of a male dominated system?” said one of the women.
Now in hiding, spending most of her nights in frightened wakefulness, she remembers feeling the rough breath on her face, the hands forcing apart her thighs, and “that animal thing” as she calls it slamming into her underfed body.
She was raped because her father was a supporter of the then opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Hear Us – a video co-produced by Zimbabwean Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and WITNESS – features stories of the four women who have come forward to demand justice from the Zimbabwean government and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
They are tabling their appeal at the SADC summit that is being held in Kinshasa. And the women have collected 2,000 messages of support to be delivered to SADC leaders at the summit running from September 2 to 8.
Post published in: News