SOUTHERTON legislator, Gift Chimanikire (MDC-T) on Thursday described the treatment often given to the women’s national football team, the Mighty Warriors, as a form of gender-based violence (GBV).
By Veneranda Langa
Chimanikire was contributing to debate in the National Assembly on a motion moved by leader of the opposition, Thokozani Khupe, on fighting violence against women and girls, which coincided with the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV.
“The way we treat the Mighty Warriors, our own women footballers, is violence against women,” he said.
“They go and play at the Olympics and after playing we give them $5 each, and what is that? That has to stop.”
The Zimbabwe senior national women’s football team made history by becoming the first football team to qualify for the Olympics.
But since achieving that feat, they have not been rewarded for their efforts and have not been feted in the same manner as their male counterparts.
They are still owed the qualifying and winning bonuses for both the Olympic and Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifiers.
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They recently participated at AWCON, but they had poor preparations, as Zifa struggled to raise funds for the team to go into camp.
They only grouped two weeks before the tournament and coach, Shadreck Mlauzi said the team’s poor show at the tournament, where they picked just one point from three matches, losing to group underdogs, Egypt, was down to inadequate preparations.
They were poorly-treated by the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee after their gallant fight at the Rio Games despite a first-round exit, where they were not remunerated.
