Mr. President, I want to share that from our research and other experiences from Uganda, about 10 years ago, there was a non-governmental organisation called Mikumi which took this issue to the courts. They advocated for the abolishment of lobola saying that it is the cause of commodification of women. The case went through High Court and there were five High Court Judges on the bench who included four females and one male in the system. After the judgement was out, there was one person who was for the abolishment of lobola and four were against it. The judges who were against the abolishment of lobola said that research from the Philippines and other countries, the statistics reflected that the top countries in gender-based violence have nothing to do with lobola. They do not pay dowry. The research which was found indicates that where violence is prevalent, there is no lobola. Judges said that there is no evidence that lobola causes violence according to the information that was given to the court. Only one person said he wanted lobola to be scrapped. The majority of four agreed that lobola should be retained. It was the male judge who said lobola should be scrapped.
I want this House to know that there are some people who come with funding in order to change other people’s culture. We were approached by Msasa Project and they said that gender-based violence is prevalent and so we need to go out and hold meetings in all towns to debate the causes of gender-based violence. Up to now, I learnt a lot. We went to places like Masvingo, Mashonaland Central and different parts of the country. The common issue which emanated from the deliberations is that women were saying that what is causing domestic violence is more to do with conjugal rights. A lot of women were saying men just come home and sleep without giving their spouses their conjugal rights. Women in turn accuse their men of infidelity because they will be giving their conjugal rights to other women, hence would respond by beating up their wives.
It was agreed that the number one cause is that men are now weak. The reason of the weakness maybe caused by small houses as men fail to deliver when they go to their spouses. I am saying that the issue to do with gender-based violence is that we might look at the wrong challenges running away from the real issues.
I want to thank Hon. Sen. Shiri for moving this motion. We want to stand together so that within five years, we resolve or address gender-based violence. Let us not pay lip service debating only. You find a motion is on the Order Paper, then it comes back in the next Parliament without any implementation. The mover of this motion should follow up on the issue so that it is expedited. I thank you.
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