As the world will be commemorating International Widow’s Day on the 23rd of June under the theme, Invisible woman, Invisible problems, MDC Alliance will join the rest of the world in commemorating this very important day in Manicaland.

The proceedings shall be led by the Assembly’s Chairperson, Hon Machirairwa Mughido. What is worrying the MDC Alliance s Women Assembly is the wanton neglect of millions of widows in Zimbabwe that has been orchestrated by the Zanu pf regime in Harare since 1980.

It is common cause that our independence came after many years of a protracted war of liberation struggle. Many women lost their husbands whose demise today we celebrate on both the independence and heroes days.

Since 1980, this government has only been talking about the demise of war veterans and war collaborators, forgetting the widows of the liberation struggle whilst these widows bore the brutal brunt of the war too. As if that is not enough, the Gukurahundi fiasco in the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces resulted in many widows as their husbands were killed during these disturbances.

The formation of the MDC in 1999 and it’s stunning performance in 2000 general elections resulted in the then Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe unleashing an orgy of violence against the MDC Alliance members.

The murdering of MDC Alliance males scaled up in 2005, 2008, 2013 and 2018 and 2019 and several MDC Alliance women have been left widowed by the state and no help is ever given to them by the government as it is all done along zanu pf partisan lines.

This International Widows Day we are commemorating
was launched by the United Nations (UN) in 2010 to raise awareness of the violation of human rights that widows suffer in many countries, Zimbabwe included following the death of their spouses.

Traditionally, women find themselves left in poverty when their husbands die. In some instances these widows find themselves denied of inheritance and land rights, evicted from their homes, ostracised and abused.

The children of these widows also find themselves affected, withdrawn from school and more vulnerable to abuse, especially in the case of girls forced into early unprotected sex leading into either early unsustainable marriages, prostitution or hooked on survival crimes which include drug abuse, thefts, street living amongst others.

The Zimbabwe government has failed to take care of widows as the social welfare has totally collapsed. They are not prioritised as sterile partisan zanu pf politics frustrate any meaningful national rainbow poverty alleviation projects.

Some of the affected women have resorted to informal trading where they are further abused by the state security apparatus by the continuous confiscation of their hard earned meagre wares under the pretext of illegal vending, covid 19 restrictions among other evils which the MDC Alliance is totally against.

Recently and in fact last week, we saw the Government and its overzealous officials unashamedly taking pride in the wanton destruction of market stalls and wares of people in the poverty striken suburb of Mbare, Chitungwiza, etc.

Some of thess affected people are widows whose spouses died of preventable diseases, ailments, political violence and various state brutalities.

Zimbabwe has an unemployment rate of more than 80%, and this is unheard of but that’s the reality. People are surviving through vending on less than US1.00 per day.

By destroying and ignoring taking good care of millions of widows since 1980, the Zimbabwean Government has failed the women. It has no cojent policies in place to attend to plight of all our widows.

All it pleases is the use of scarce resources to destroy people such as widows which irks us very much. Yo our surprise the zanu pf widows are also suffering from ages of gross neglect by zanu pf.

These widows look forward to a reprieve which can only come through an administration ushered by an MDC Alliance Government led by non other than Adv. Nelson Chamisa as the President of a New Zimbabwe.

We believe empowering the widows and their children is one of the solution to their endless problems. Formalisation of informal economy, cheap funding and support is the way to go as opposed to the Zanu pf madness of demolishing their livelihoods in the form of these structures.

Only an MDC Alliance government is the one capable of putting sound policies in place as Zanu pf is moribund, clueless and bend on just destroying the livelihoods of the vulnerable which we have witnessed from Zanu pf for the past 41 years of its rule.

The MDC Alliance Agenda 2021 speaks to fighting for better livelihoods in order to improve people’s lives. All progressive forces must dump zanu pf and its scorched earth policies which are anti widows and their dependants.

We stand in solidarity with all the economic and political widows and our message to all is that, only a change in government in Zimbawe will lead to the end of their problems.

The world must fervently reject the zanu pf’s empty rethoric of blaming sanctions as there are no sanctions but just targeted measures being used as a smoke screen to conceal it’s endemic failure to cater for it’s widows.

Barbara Gwangwara Tanyanyiwa
Spokesperson: MDC Alliance Assembly of Women