ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE/EDITION Nr 324 - 15/05/1997

Zimbabwe

Former women freedom fighters

by Lewis Gaba, Zimbabwe, February 1997

THEME = WOMEN

INTRODUCTION

Governments that came to power after Southern Africa's wars of liberation, have gone back on their ideals of gender equality and are now marginalizing those women who used to be freedom fighters

The First Convention of former Southern African women freedom fighters, was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 31 January-2 February this year. In a document, representatives from the five Southern African countries concerned, resolved to establish a networking committee. The aim was to co-ordinate regional activities in relation to socio-economic issues, especially those concerning women and children living in (or who have lived through) an armed conflict situation.
The Convention noted that: 1) Women and children are always victims of armed conflict. 2) Former women freedom fighters are not involved at the highest level of decision-making; they are being axed in large numbers from the defence forces; they are getting increasingly frustrated over lack of promotion. The Convention agreed that any solution that does not take into account the interests of women and children affected by the conflict, trivialises the suffering experienced by these defenceless sections of the community.
The Convention empowered its networking committee to write to Koffie Annah, Secretary General of the United Nations, and to all other interested parties, demanding official representation in the envisaged Great Lakes summit which is expected to find solutions to the conflict presently raging in Zaire.
Pamela Tungamirai is a former freedom fighter. She is now a Member of Parliament in Zimbabwe and headed the Zimbabwean delegation to the Convention. She said: "The majority of refugees in the refugee camps in Zaire, are either women or children who have nothing to do with the tussle for political hegemony in the region". She pointed out that the networking committee will raise grants from the Southern African Development Community, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, to ensure that victims of armed conflict can make their voices heard and have sufficient resources for their needs.

Women's influence

Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa attained their independence after a protracted armed liberation struggle. All these countries are in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Those former women freedom fighters taking part in the Convention, agreed that they are ideally placed for responding to the needs of women and children living in an armed conflict situation. After all, most of them are also mothers and they could greatly influence regional leaders into adopting decisions leading to a positive impact on the welfare of women and children.
Tungamirai explained: "We are demanding in the strongest possible terms, that former women freedom fighters should be allowed to accede to high office; also, that they should be given every opportunity of participating in regional peace keeping. Those who are not in the army must be assisted to realise their full potential, and also be able to participate in local and regional issues concerning women and children".
In her keynote address to the Convention, The African National Congress Women's League president, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, noted that post-independence governments have failed to deliver on promises made during their various wars of liberation. These governments must be forced to devote more attention and resources to women and children, living in an armed conflict situation.
Her deputy, Thandi Modise, the Convention's Convenor, told delegates that men have always placed women in a secondary position in society. The ideals expressed during the armed struggles, when men and women fought side by side, seem to have been forgotten. It is estimated that there are over 20,000 former women freedom fighters in the Southern African region, but less than 10% still remain on active service in the armies of the five-member countries. Major Paulino Nkunda of the Mozambican army and a former freedom fighter in the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), says that only 200 former women freedom fighters still remain in the Mozambican army.

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PeaceLink 1997 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement