The Zimbabwe Gender Commission was established in terms of Section 246 of the Constitution and operationalized through the Gender Commission Act of [Chapter 10:31] with an overall mandate to promote and ensure gender equality as provided for by the national Constitution. The Constitution further provides for the powers of the Commission to receive complaints and investigate any violations of rights relating to gender equality.

The Commission is deeply concerned about the attacks against female political leaders, which have been reported in some sections of the media recently.

These attacks are worrisome particularly with the looming General Elections, as they will inevitably escalate to outbreaks of political violence during and after the elections, if left unchecked. These heinous acts of political violence are aimed at intimidating the democratic contestation of ideas and silencing the voices of women in politics.

This also exacerbates the disparity between men and women in politics and decision making positions and flies in the face of gender equality and peaceful, free, fair and credible elections that His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Cde. E.D. Mnangagwa has been preaching about.

Any violence especially against women cannot be tolerated

• Political Party Leaders to take a strong public stance against the use of electoral and political violence against women and improve the status of women within their political parties
• Political parties to create gender responsive intra-party and inter-party dispute resolution mechanisms
• Political parties to uphold the gender equality provisions in the Constitution
• The media to portray women leaders positively and avoid the deliberate negative portrayal of women in leadership as this creates negative stereotypes of women in the political arena