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Women should not limit themselves — Mpariwa

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MUFAKOSE MDC-T MP Paurina Mpariwa says her trade unionist background drove her to take part in opposition politics and to fight for the rights of workers and underprivileged people.

MUFAKOSE MDC-T MP Paurina Mpariwa says her trade unionist background drove her to take part in opposition politics and to fight for the rights of workers and underprivileged people.

Veneranda Langa

Mpariwa, who chairs one of the most powerful portfolio committees in Parliament, the Public Accounts Committee, said auditing of government departments and parastatals should be strengthened to uncover corruption before it spread.

The following are excerpts from an interview between NewsDay Senior Parliamentary Reporter Veneranda Langa (ND) and Mpariwa (PM) on her political career.

ND: Who is Honourable Paurina Mpariwa and how did you become active in politics? PM: I was born 50 years ago in Karoi in a family of four. I was privileged in that my father was a businessman and owned construction companies and so he managed to take us to school.

I attended St Mary’s Secondary School in Chitungwiza and Lower Gweru School where I completed “A” Levels.

I also hold several diplomas in industrial relations, paralegal studies and management.

I started engaging in politics due to my background as a trade unionist. In the ’90s, I was finance administrator for the Commercial Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe, and at Delta where I worked at OK Zimbabwe, I also led the workers’ committee and national works council.

My duties entailed doing collective bargaining at company level for employees and this energised my level of participation in trade unionism.

In 1992, I got into the women’s advisory council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and became so involved in encouraging women to participate in trade unionism. I also encouraged women to get into leadership positions.

The umbilical cord between trade unionism and politics was never cut and in 1998, I was at the forefront of forming the MDC.

ND: What was your main objective of participating in forming the MDC? PM: I realised that the majority of workers were women since they make up most of the population in Zimbabwe. I made a resolution to be part of the team that formed the MDC in 1999 at Zesa Training Centre. I worked with people like the late former MDC spokesperson Learnmore Jongwe, former MDC member Munyaradzi Gwisai and former Harare Central MP Mike Auret. The people of Mufakose then invited me to stand as their Parliamentary candidate in 2000 and I have been their MP for four terms.

ND: As MP, what issues do you really want to tackle to ensure people in your constituency have a better life? PM: I am interested in social welfare issues and improving the lives of vulnerable groups, especially women and children. I want to assist the less privileged and workers whose rights have been trampled upon. As a result, I have been secretary for labour in the MDC-T for 10 years, and am currently secretary for international relations and shadow minister for labour. In my constituency, I have, therefore, taken an interest in projects that try to alleviate poverty.

ND: What kind of projects have you embarked on to improve the lives of people in Mufakose? PM: During my tenure in government, and in 2010, MPs were privileged in that we were allocated $50 000 under the Constituency Development Fund. I used those resources to sink boreholes, buy computers for schools as well as textbooks and furniture I did a means assessment to ascertain the requirements of different schools in the area because some of them wanted school buildings to be renovated. I also bought sewing machines for women with disabilities as well as able-bodied women. I also introduced cooking projects and bought stoves for women to bake scones and bread for sale. I have even gone out of my way to get bales of second-hand clothes for women and youths, and some of them have embarked on poultry projects, selling kapenta fish and chickens.

ND: You were the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare during the inclusive government. Tell us about your experiences? PM: My background as a labour expert and gender activist as well as social worker made me an all-rounder and best person to fill in the post of Social Welfare minister during the inclusive government. I rightly deserved the post as those were my daily activities at the inception of the MDC. It was, however, not easy to deal with the portfolio of Social Welfare because people had no food, there were orphans, as well as people living with disabilities. The biggest challenge was that resources were inadequate for government as well as my own ministry. The Social Welfare ministry means one has to look after people from birth to death in terms of accommodation, food, schooling, and even doing pauper burials.

ND: How have you participated in the National Assembly and at Portfolio Committees? PM: In the National Assembly I have been active in contributing to motions such as the gender-based-violence (GBV) motion because women in my constituency have also been victims of GBV. I also contribute immensely to debate on issues to do with workers. I also like to contribute to motions to do with finance. I am currently the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts which has a serious watchdog function over how ministries and parastatals use public funds.

ND: What have you done so far as the Public Accounts Committee considering that corruption at ministries and parastatals has been topical in the media? PM: It is actually a post-mortem committee because currently we are still dealing with audited reports dating back to 2009. We work with the Auditor-General’s Office. We want anomalies to be detected early, but the Auditor-General’s Office faces a big challenge in that ministries do not send their financial reports on time for auditing to take place.

The committee has a mammoth task to ensure public funds are protected from abuse. To deal effectively with corruption, people should follow rules and regulations.

The corporate governance framework of 2010 should be implemented and tender procedures, contracts negotiation and accountability when it comes to natural resources should be practiced.

As a committee, we are also trying to make recommendations for the corporate governance framework. Corruption is a big problem in this country and those found guilty should be brought to book because they would have wasted public resources.

My committee cannot operate effectively without the Auditor-General’s Office and they need to be capacitated to audit ministries, parastatals and local authorities on time before rot happens.

ND: What kind of challenges do you face as a woman heading such a powerful portfolio committee? PM: As a woman, I just need to be hands-on and be robust in terms of executing my duties. I should also do that without fear or favour. The other challenges are to do with that as women we are not financially secure and getting to Parliament becomes a challenge.

As MPs, our constituents need financial help for funerals, school fees and so on, and often we are unable to do so.

Parliament has also failed to provide constituency offices for MPs and it is difficult to become accessible to constituents without those offices and support staff to help us with research.

ND: What are your words of encouragement to other women who might want to get into politics? PM: It is possible for women to perform exceptionally in positions of authority and so they should not fear such responsibilities.