There is a need for the enforcement of laws that protect women from political violence in Zimbabwe, a peace-building practitioner, Dr Ntombizakhe Moyo-Nyoni has said.
She made the remarks during a CITE weekly program, ‘On Her Throne’ where she was discussing the culture of political violence in Zimbabwe.
The country is set to have general elections later in the year and opposition political parties have raised concerns that the polls are likely to be violent.
“When we look at Zimbabwe, the politics is largely influenced by series of violent incidents that come one after the other, it’s more like we have a trend where we are saying almost every five years, some people have to die or there is bloodshed linked to some political instability in a way,” she said.
She added that political violence is a manifestation of various unsolved issues that continue to plague the country.
“The bottom line is that it’s a reflection to show that things are not okay somewhere, in most cases when we are looking at violence, violence is more like a fruit in a tree, if you try to take a tree as a form of imagery to symbolise violence, you see that what we see on top can be likened to violence, more like the branches, fruits, the leaves but in instance, there are roots that are feeding what we are seeing on top which is a form of conflict in a way or the other,” said Dr Moyo-Nyoni.
Dr Moyo-Nyoni said women have become victims of political violence.
“Much of the violence is perpetrated by men to the women although there are instances where we are seeing women being the perpetrator and physically women are weaker than men so whenever a man is perpetrating the violence to the women in most cases the woman bears the injury and they struggle to fight back because they don’t have that capacity or the stamina of fighting back,” she said.
She pointed out that rape is one of the tools used against women by perpetrators of political violence.
