Blog

In late July, the region seemed to be ablaze. The massive protests for democratic order in Eswatini, rising COVID death toll across the region and  Food Protests in South Africa which was said to be brought on by the imprisonment of ex-President Jacob Zuma. To many, this did not occur as a coincidence. No this was a showing of tethering of the very fibre that kept the countries in Southern Africa together. Landlessness leads to Hunger, Gender-Based Violence and perpetuation of a cycle of Poverty. What we saw was a deepening of the socio-economic inequality that runs deep in the region.

So now we are at a crossroads- How do we move our countries from fatigue from bad governance, towards a pro-poor Government that is conscious, accountable and transparent? Is this even a possibility? 

We will be sharing a special bulletin on the events and outcomes of the SADC People\’s Summit meeting in Lilongwe, Malawi, which happened during 17-27 August 2021. We will share the communique as well as the experience of our sisters who participated and led some of the sessions in a hybrid online/offline process. We hope for concrete outcomes that sees some of these injustices in the region reviewed and our demands in these as rural women, met. Stay tuned for the bulletin coming in the coming days.

Namibia

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Migration from Angola to Namibia to escape Hunger

Many Angolans have been migrating to the North-Western part of Namibia, in the Omusati region. The number of Angolan refugees has now grown to 2 383 and is rapidly increasing by the day. Since the official borders remain closed in Namibia due to COVID-19 lockdown regulations, desperate Angolan refugees have been coming into the country in hopes of finding a job and food to eat. The situation of the Angolan migrants migrating to Namibia is dire, this situation is not unique in the region where occurrences of growing hunger, joblessness and landlessness is an ever-increasing feature. The Angolan government is encouraging their citizens to return home. We need to call for a regional review of the dire situations citizens of the region are experiencing which is undignified and unjust. The impacts of COVID-19 is far-reaching and extremely devastating and calls for a collective approach.

“Our government seems not to care about us. How long are we here without being helped? We cannot go back to Angola where there are no jobs,” the desperate migrants share their perspective of the Angolan Government.

Zimbabwe

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As the Southern African region continues to experience a crisis, Zimbabwe is not spared. The crisis being experienced in this region are as a result of many factors ranging from lack of democracy, poor economies and unfair distribution of economic resources through corruption, and to natural disasters such as droughts, floods, cyclones and COVID-19.

The crisis in Zimbabwe is largely due to corruption and poor land administrative system leading to poor security of land tenure in Zimbabwe. This has resulted in rural communities losing land to multinational and private companies in the name of development. This is mainly affecting rural women and girls who form 70%  of rural dwellers in Zimbabwe. The communal land tenure system is not secure enough and rural farmers are being easily displaced to pave way for other forms of land resource exploitation. Communal land tenure system is not secure enough and rural farmers are being easily displaced to pave way for other forms of land resource exploitation.

The following are cases of communities being displaced to give way for companies in the name of development:

The Chillonga Communal area- Chiredzi

Chilonga is a communal area in Chiredzi District and in late February 2021 the government issued a Statutory Instrument announcing that an area of 12 000 hectares of land in Chilonga area was to be allocated to a major investment project focused on the livestock fodder grass, (Lucerne) the displacement was to affect 2258 households (approximately 13 840 people).

Mutoko Community- Mutoko

 In Mutoko ward 11, approximately 1500 households were to be displaced to pave way for granite mining.

Dinde Community- Hwange

Dinde village, Ward 13, Hwange District in February 2021 a Chinese Company went  to displace 600 families to pave way for Coal mining.

Matimba- Shurugwi

Four [4] villages are losing land in the name of alluvial mining activities taking place along Mutewekwi river.

In all these events there are no immediate plans for relocated families. During displacements women and children are the ones who are most affected in transit camps or processes because of their gender roles.

The activities by some of these companies are causing damage to the ecosystem- Waterpolution like that of Nyantuwe river in Hwange and in Shurugwi in Mutewekwi river which provides drinking water for communities including their livestock causes loss of life and loss of grazing land for their livestock and destruction of cultural heritage sites such as graveyards.

The enjoyment of the right to food declined exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a drought spanning over 2 years. The lockdown affected people’s livelihoods resulting in serious food insecurity. Equally contributing to food insecurity amongst communities and the general high pricing of goods and services being charged in foreign currency. Vulnerable groups such as older persons and persons with disabilities, rural women among others are the hardest hit in terms of securing goods and services, as they have limited access to foreign currency.

According to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Report (ZHRC) 2020 they received and handled a total of six hundred and forty-two (642) of human rights violations. Investigations carried out by the ZHRC included but were not limited to the following: law enforcement agencies’ brutality during the COVID-19 imposed lockdown; arbitrary evictions and demolitions of houses in Chitungwiza, Budiriro and other areas, alleged partisan distribution of Pfumvudza/Intwasa and other agricultural related inputs, maladministration by public officials among other issues.

In conclusion, as the rural women the lack of security of tenure is a major challenge as the effects affects rural women and girls mostly.

Lesotho

Looking at the way things are in this country, everything seems to feel like a crisis. It is very unfortunate, as all this strain on citizens was not brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, but exacerbated in ways that leave the rural poor even further on the fringes. Most people go as far as wonder if the country should still be left as an independent state or it should be joined to South Africa for a while now, they even proposed to the government to consider merging into South Africa as the country is completely landlocked by it, this is because many people in the country believe it is a failed state and hoping there might be greener pastures in South Africa which is a question that needs to be answered.

The concern over the country been called a failed state comes because our politics don\’t seem to be answering to needs of the people. The politics in this country only benefits a few, who happen to be family and friends of the politicians and not ordinary citizens. More than 75% of the population in the country is made of youth of which 34.41% are unemployed (2019 statistics). This is caused by an undiversified market and a small private sector, where most most of those who are employed, earn a salary that is below the poverty line. The situation has become so bad that we see foreign stakeholders in business where they own public bars, and taxi industries by using poor citizen’s as mere operators. In this condition it is really hard for the youth of this country to survive even though they are the future! Youth are turning to substance abuse, choosing early marriages for the girls as it is seen as a way for them to be safe from physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Imagine. Many youths have turned to theft as means of survival and the country is not safe in the hands of its own future leaders. And there seem to be no inter-generational engagement in government, as there are not programmes developed for youth to benefit from politically.

Amongst other things it is the poor service delivery in our government ministries. This has been a problem for many years so much that it has become a norm for people to give bribes when they want a service, this means that for those people who don\’t have means they usually don\’t get the service they need or it take days. This can be seen a lot happening to our rural women. The security in the country especially for the elderly is not there, which has made us see many get raped and killed without anyone been caught or if caught they are out on a R500 bail.

 Things are not changing but are in fact worsening especially in these times of Covid-19 where lockdown has been imposed to the citizens without a strategy of how the citizens will survive, and sadly no one seems to care. Prices of food has increased so much that getting the basic things for the house especially food has become a thing for the past for most families. The government has stopped giving food parcels to those vulnerable groups, and our fear is malnutrition will increase and fear for more lives been lost because of hunger and there is no clear strategy of how the government is going to help in this situation.

Water is said to be Lesotho\’s white diamond, is it true or just because it is exported to South Africa people think we have plenty of it? Ok, the reality of what is happening is that many households do not have water or have to travel a long distance to a water supply. Just this past week’s people in Mafeteng district have not been getting water because the dam that used to supply the district with water has dried up, and the hospital is not receiving patients because of the shortage of water, in this time when people are advised to wash their hands with running water regularly.

Lesotho is said to be a peaceful country but I don\’t think that is the case anymore, with the increasing crime rate in the country, are we going to see more of it as the most of youth is unemployed? What kind of the future are we going to have in this country as many students have dropped out of school because of Covid-19 and many girl children got married and many are pregnant? Who needs to be consulted so as to listen and make a decision to solve our problems, will making Lesotho the 9th province of South Africa solve the problem or making our King lead the country be a solution? We have experienced a lot of trauma already caused by Covid-19, we need to heal but our country is going through a lot.

Zambia

Treasure in Trash: Used Maize Cobs Provide Income and Sustainance  

Dorothy Mugala is a RWA Zambia member from the rural area of Chingola who has benefited from Rural Women’s Assembly activities and programs. She has learnt how to make charcoal from the shells that come from maize cobs (green charcoal) and sustain herself. Dorothy has been able to learn about the importance of preserving the land for future generations to come. RWA Zambia had given her a source of income through the knowledge she has gained and the seeds she was given to cultivate. Women in Rural Women Assembly Zambia are creating ways and means to reduce poverty in their homes and they are taught skills that enable them to generate their own income such as the skill she learnt through a fellow RWA member. She has appreciated the support and networking opportunities that RWA Zambia is giving to rural women. She encouraged that RWA should continue supporting rural women to ensure that more women benefit and are liberated from poverty.

This is the crisis of the region, poverty levels for those living in rural Zambia are stubbornly high, impacting as much as 78 percent of the population and disproportionately affecting adolescent girls and women. Initiatives such as using maize cobs as charcoal and planting/cultivating a mix of indigenous and non-indigenous seeds have helped rural women such as Dorothy to survive.

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Unjust rule under Anti-Poor Governance

Zambia underwent the process of presidential (only one female candidate) elections. For the longest time under the patriarchy political system there has been gross misconduct, corruption and unpatriotic acts that have led to the eventual oppression of the rural woman in terms of livelihood struggles. As in Zambia, among the struggles were through the dollar rising against the local currency resulting in high inflation of prices of goods and services; thus, increasing the cost of living. In addition, unruly political cadres who were not governed by the law caused unrest among the local people. 

On election day many citizens turned up in numbers to cast their ballots starting to queue up as early as the previous evening; literally sleeping at the polling stations. Some of whom were women. As RWA Zambia, we encouraged women participation in our communities and through our social media platforms. The turnout was high over 70% of registered voters casted their vote.

Solidarity was shown by the Zambian people to speak against the oppression that had been experienced in the time prior to the 2021 election. And eventually a leader was selected as voted by the people. Zambia looks to a better future as highlighted in the new leader’s manifesto.

This is the crisis of the region, other African countries apart from Zambia are ruled under a patriarchy system that is defiled by corruption, oppression and unpatriotic acts that eventually negatively affects rural women at community level. There is a need to rise up and condemn this system. As in the case of Zambia and Swaziland act in solidarity against the injustice of corrupt leaders in support with fellow sisters and comrades.

Eswatini

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The region continues having a similar crisis from time to time which is mainly caused by poor governance. For the past two months, the government of Eswatini has had political unrest because people rose and petitioned their members of parliament (MPs) in their constituencies to demand service delivery which among them include access to vaccines which till to date the population is not vaccinated and the vaccines we had are all from donations.
The work that RWA is doing to capacitate women and lobby members of parliament have seen other members of parliament rising to and demanding a Prime Minister (PM) that will be elected by the people so that he/she is also accountable to the people. Currently, the constitution of Eswatini in section 67(1) gives power to the king to elect the Prime Minister.

The women movement have played a huge role in the overall struggle although they might not be seen as compared to men. The women movement have played a huge role in the overall struggle although they might not be seen to be many as compared to men during the current protests. For quite some years women were doing the ground work through civic education capacitating communities on their constitutional rights and also the lobbying of members of parliament (MP) on the rights which saw the rise in even rural communities which were ignorant before. This unemployed youth is also a burden to the women they ensure they are fed and dressed. In the ongoing fiasco, women has confronted police by organizing many marches to demand answers, call for suspects to be questioned and arrested. Police kept being reluctant especially if the issues touched royalty or senior government officials like in the case where one prince threaten to kill a wife of a exiled journalist whom the state regard as dangerous and problematic due to what he report

 The Rural Women’s Assembly and other Non-Governmental Organisation have noted though the deepening state of poverty due to covid measures and of late the recent actions as it impacted them in many ways including loss of children, loss of business as informal business whom constitutes many women striving to exist in this face of humiliating poverty. All of us understand now that we have to make all efforts to see the country change or die a slow painful death due to this unliveable conditions we are in. The number of women killed currently in the protest is low compared to men, yet many of them posed no threat to anyone as dress code could be noted exposing the lies the regime spread of imaginary mercenaries who invaded the country.

Speaking to members of Rural women In Swaziland through voice notes about their understanding of democracy and freedom and the current unrest, they firstly condemned the burning of local businesses as they are owned by Swazis and had left them without food. But further acknowledged the frustrations of the youth. They defined democracy and freedom as a right for rural women to access land, have equal opportunities, the end of patriarchal norms instilled as cultural and African tradition, an inclusive government etc. A society where the voice of women will not be glorified by comparing it to that of men. A conducive environment for everyone to freely live, grow, express and choose whatever she wishes to.