At a time when women were faced with political obstacles, Majome fought to stand up for the rights of her counterparts. Her journey in politics began at the tender age of nine when she was highly vocal in primary school and stood up against injustice.
The Deputy Minister was labeled rebellious and her headmaster recommended that she go for counseling.
Legal reforms for women
“At one point the headmaster recommended that I go for counselling because of my desire to influence the way things were done. He thought there was something wrong with me and I was going crazy. When I was in Grade Four I protested against our school anthem because it promoted racial discrimination. I took the issue up with my father who notified the Ministry of Education about my concerns and the song was banned,” she added.
At the University of Zimbabwe, Majome formed the Gender Forum to fight against the sexual harassment of female students. Upon the completion of her law studies, Majome said her ultimate goal was to bring about law reforms that benefitted women.
She subsequently became the youngest female commissioner in the National Constitutional Commission before being nominated the National Spokesperson of the National Constitutional Assembly.
Majome became an MDC member of the House of Assembly for Harare West, a Member of the Parliament Select Committee on Constitutional Reform and its Deputy Co-chairperson and Information and Publicity Sub-committee Chairperson.
She was also the Founder and Senior Partner at Gonese, Jessie Majome & Company Legal Practitioners.
At party level, Majome is a member of the National Executive Committee of the MDC.
She says she was motivated to join the party at its formation because she was convinced it would bring about social change.
SADC gender protocol
She said her passion in liberating women prompted her to push for the ratification of the SADC protocol on parliament, gender and development.
“I pushed for that when I was Deputy Minister for Justice and Legal Affairs. I wrote a letter to the Minister of Women’s Affairs and urged her to move a motion in parliament,” she said.
In her party, Majome lobbied for gender parity in 2008 and successfully lobbied for the Women’s Assembly of the party to demand a quota for women’s seats. However, her party still lags behind in terms empowering women to take up influential positions.
Even though her party has a female Deputy President, Thokozani Khupe, and several women as cabinet ministers, the number of female MPs is still insignificant.
Commenting on the current constitutional draft, Majome said it went beyond expectations and women had what they wanted and more.
A sexist view
“There are certain critical women’s needs that were covered and we are happy with that,” she said, but went on to express reservations regarding the 50-50 quota provision for men and women in parliament, saying it was vague on how it would be achieved.
Majome added that it would have been better for women to be accorded equal representation in municipal seats. She dismissed the perception that women in top leadership were not fully representing women.
“I think that is a sexist view. Why are women singled out? Men just don’t want to surrender the dividends that they have because of the way they have been raised. Look at what the Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe has achieved. She is the President of the Global Power Women Network in Africa and a CARMMA Ambassador, fighting against maternity mortality,” said Majome.
Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa is a lobby organisation based in Zimbabwe. She said despite the significant progress made in the area of policy and legislation reform, the legal, social and economic and political status of women remained relatively poor.
“Most women do not exercise the rights that laws specifically guarantee. This is due to ignorance of the law, its administration and economic hardships,” she added.
Post published in: News