MDC MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga has added her voice to those criticising Zanu PF for belittling the role of female combatants of the country’s liberation war following State media’s so-called “exposés” of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s alleged sexcapades during the liberation war.
by VENERANDA LANGA
In an interview with NewsDay in Bulawayo yesterday, Misihairabwi-Mushonga said allegations that Mujuru was a bed-hopper were an insult to all women who participated in the liberation struggle as it insinuated they were sex slaves to the freedom fighters.
“For a ruling party that has been for years drumming into people’s minds the issue of the importance of the liberation struggle, and 36 years later to begin to reduce the liberation struggle to a sleeping contest is to destroy the entire legacy of the liberation struggle,” Misihairabwi-Mushonga said.
“It now puts doubts in us on whether indeed there was a liberation struggle that took place if people start telling us that some of the icons that we looked up to as having fought for our liberation were only sleeping around.” She said from a woman’s perspective, the utterances by Zanu PF politburo member George Rutanhire destroyed everything that Zanu PF had done to empower women.
“They are now simply saying women that participated during the liberation struggle were nothing but sex slaves who only made male fighters comfortable, and yet all along they have been claiming they stand for women rights. They are destroying the fundamental values of empowerment and recognition of women,” Misihairabwi Mushonga said.
She said the fact that the story denigrating Mujuru was covered on the front page of a State-owned publication showed the extent that female freedom fighters were being looked down upon.
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“Why are they not telling us the whole chronicles of which male fighter was sleeping with whom during the liberation struggle?” Misihairabwi-Mushonga asked.
“What Rutanhire implied in his utterances is that even a whole Retired General Solomon Mujuru who is buried at the national shrine was not a freedom fighter, but was basically fighting sex battles and sending people to the front to be killed for allegedly bedding Mujuru (Joice).”
She said the culture of denigrating female fighters by talking about their alleged sex life, while that of men was kept under wraps was unfair and an insult to all women in Zimbabwe.
