HARARE, Aug. 16 (NewsDay Live) — President of the Senate Mabel Chinomona has urged female parliamentarians to use their platforms to amplify women’s concerns, saying representation must go beyond numbers to deliver tangible change in communities.
Speaking at a Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus refresher capacity-building workshop covering research skills, grooming and etiquette, social media handling and public speaking, Chinomona challenged female MPs to strengthen their engagement with women at grassroots level.
“If a woman can carry the responsibility of a home, a family and often an entire community, then surely she can also carry the responsibility of leadership,” Chinomona said.
She said women MPs had inherited a political space created by previous generations of female leaders and had a responsibility to widen it for those who would follow.
“Thirty percent is progress. It is not the destination,” she said.
Chinomona said women across Zimbabwe faced different challenges and MPs needed to understand the specific concerns of the communities they represented.
“Sometimes we speak about ‘women’ as though we are one big group with the same problems, yet the woman in Binga may not be facing the same challenge as the woman in Mbare or the young mother in Mutoko,” she said.
“We need to know these women. We need to listen to them and understand what is happening in their lives, then bring those issues into this Parliament.”
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She urged MPs to harness social media to explain their work, engage citizens and bring community concerns into national discourse.
“Because the measure of women’s representation is not only the number of women sitting in Parliament. It is the number of women’s concerns that find their way into Parliament and the number of those concerns that leave Parliament with a response,” Chinomona said.
However, she cautioned MPs to exercise discipline when using social media, warning that careless posts could damage their credibility.
“Before you post something, stop and ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it respectful? And will I still be comfortable with it five years from now?” she said.
Chinomona also urged female MPs to view grooming and etiquette as tools for carrying themselves with confidence, dignity and respect rather than as expectations about how women should look.
The Senate president said the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, established in 2001, had played an important role in bringing female parliamentarians together and advocating for issues affecting women.
She called on MPs to build on that legacy and support one another.
“Chara chimwe hachitswanyi inda,” she said, using the Shona proverb meaning one finger cannot crush a louse.
“We need one another. A woman who succeeds should not be the woman who closes the door behind her.”
