Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ), representing a non-partisan Women’s Rights Organisations and activists in all 10 provinces whose mandate is to work on the promotion, protection and advancing of women rights in Zimbabwe, is disappointed with the gender composition of the just announced Cabinet, which is signalling that President Mnangagwa’s administration is not prioritising the alignment of his decisions with the Constitutional imperatives requiring equal representation of women and men in state institutions.
We must note that women have been deliberately excluded from recognition and for their participation in public political affairs in Zimbabwe prior to independence and marginalised further since 1980. We are therefore further saddened at the apparent failure to appoint equal numbers of women and men to Cabinet. The Executive continues to reflect a flagrant disregard of Zimbabwean law, policy, and values. This is despite public statements and legal commitments that oblige the State, in particular the Head of State, to demonstrate inclusivity in the current dispensation;
