Parties not uplifting women: Group

In its gender audit report released last week, the Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU) said President Robert Mugabes Zanu (PF), Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais MDC-T and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambaras MDC-M parties were similar in the way they treat female politicians.

The three parties claim to believe in the core values of equality, justice, empowerment, non-discrimination, freedom and equity among others but none of these three parties had a substantive gender policy, read the report entitled Are Political Parties Serious About Gender Equality and Womens Rights?

It added: Only MDC-T had developed a gender and women empowerment policy by the second phase of the study. The MDC claimed they had a policy however most of those interviewed were not aware of it. Zanu (PF) claimed the countrys National Gender Policy is the Zanu (PF) policy since it went through Zanu (PF) processes before being adopted as the national policy.

WIPSU is a feminist organisation which provides support for women in Parliament and local government in Zimbabwe with the aim of increasing their qualitative and quantitative participation and influence in policy and decision making.

The gender audit report which was compiled between March 2008 and 2009 assesses the commitments the political parties in Zimbabwe have made in advancing women participation in decision-making positions.

The report further stated that members of the three parties are not even aware that there are gender policies in their parties. It said the parties have written policies that look good on paper but will not go further than the shelves.

For all the three political parties, it is clear that there is a huge gap between rhetoric, policy on paper and policy in reality, read the report.

The pressure group said the attitude of political parties in Zimbabwe is generally negative. It said it will present the report to the three political parties and lobby them to implement its recommendations.