THE Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) implores political party leaders and their supporters to foster peace ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections. The call comes against the prevailing toxic political environment which has been characterised by a spate of inter-party as well as intra-party violence that occurred in Matobo and Insiza. These violent clashes have a potential to adversely affect the participation in democratic electoral processes of the electorate in particular vulnerable groups.
Further, political and electoral related violence undermines civil and political rights and affects citizens’ right to compete in electoral processes; erodes trust in democratic processes; undermines the quality of democracy thereby, limiting inclusive participation and leads to voter apathy as it discourages the electorate particularly women and people with disabilities to participate in electoral processes and leadership positions.
The network thus calls on political parties to foster peace, come up with conflict management mechanisms and create a conducive political environment where divergent views are respected and where all citizens enjoy their fundamental rights without fear in line with the dictates of Section 67(2) of the Constitution which provides for fundamental rights including the right:-
- to form, to join and to participate in the activities of a political party or organisation of their choice;
- to campaign freely and peacefully for a political party or cause;
- to participate in peaceful political activity; and
- to participate, individually or collectively, in gatherings or groups or in any other manner, in peaceful activities to influence, challenge or support the policies of the Government or any political or whatever cause.
Zesn also urges political parties to engage the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission in such instances so that they investigate, speak out against violence, uncover the causes behind the conflicts, and assist all victims of the conflict, to facilitate dialogue among political parties and offer possible solutions in order to prevent conflicts and disputes arising in the future.
Zesn recommends that perpetrators of violence must be arrested without fear or favour.-Zimbabwe Election Support Network
Financial literacy good to ensure aspiring women manage funds well
WOMEN’S Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) with assistance from Diakonia conducted two capacity building trainings in social entrepreneurship, value addition, branding and access to markets in Gwanda urban and rural-Manama in Matebeleland South, from September 14 to 17 2022.
About 120 aspiring women leaders were capacitated with skills and knowledge in social entrepreneurship so as to help them understand:
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- What financial literacy is,
- What is budgeting,
- How to budget,
- The importance of value addition, branding and packaging.
- How to run successful businesses and projects as aspiring leaders who will be responsible for managing different projects in their communities and
- How to market their products physically and digitally.
The practical part of the trainings saw the aspiring women leaders being taught how to make marmalade jam, dried vegetables/mufushwa and tomato sauce for resale in order to supplement their incomes.
The social entrepreneurship model of training is meant to support women that are aspiring for public leadership positions to ensure that they are able to fund and support their campaigns and other leadership activities as well as to support their families.
This was done as a realisation that women were shying away from participating in politics and leadership positions because of the financial constraints it has on them and their families. Hence, the training and financial support is meant to create a better financial support for women to take up and equally participate in public leadership positions thus, paving way for gender equality.
The trainings equipped the women with the skills and confidence to contest for leadership positions and take an active interest in matters of governance and national development. The capacity-building processes are enhancing the leadership capacity and know-how of women who want to occupy leadership positions from grassroots to national level.-WALPE
People must ditch traditional energy for renewable
People need to hear, likely repetitively, that it’s no longer prudent to have all or even most infrastructure reliant on such traditional sources of power, regardless of — or, maybe, due to — collective humankind’s vulnerable over-reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels.
People also need to be informed or reminded that if the universal availability of a renewable energy alternative, such as mass solar-energy harvestation, would come at the expense of the traditional “energy” production companies’ large profits, one can expect obstacles, including the political and regulatory sort.
And that if something notably conflicts with long-held and deeply entrenched corporate interests, even very progressive motions are greatly resisted, often enough successfully.
Additionally, there will be those who will rebut the renewable-energy type/concept altogether, perhaps solely on the illogic that if it was possible, it would have been patented already and made a few people superfluously rich.
While assuming fossil fuel industry chief executive officers are not foolish enough to actually believe that their descendants would somehow always evade the health repercussions related to their industry’s environmentally reckless decisions, one wonders whether the unlimited-profit objective/nature is somehow irresistible to those businesspeople, including the willingness to simultaneously allow an already threatened consumer base to continue so, if not be threatened even further?
It somewhat brings to mind the allegorical fox stung by the instinct-abiding scorpion while ferrying it across the river, leaving both to drown.
Still, there must be a point at which the status quo — be it bone-dry-vegetation areas uncontrollably burning, unbreathable city air, or unprecedented high-death-toll weather events — will also end up hurting the industry’s own bottom-line interests.-Frank Sterke JR
