22 January 2022
Prosperity Sikhosana
Londiwe Dube
The Honorable Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Dr. Sithembiso G.G Nyoni, held the first conference of Women associations held on Tuesday at government offices Mhlahlandlela Conference Hall Bulawayo.
The Minister was accompanied by her Permanent Secretary, Mr Moses Mhike.
The meeting was a call to all women, in order to address issues affecting women in their respective communities and businesses.
The Minister urged women in different associations to come together under one roof and work hand in glove to better their lives.
“We want to launch 2022 with a bang for women and to also launch for the president’s vision 2030 for upper middle class where women will work hand in hand through projects under different sectors for the development of Bulawayo and Zimbabwe as a whole”, Said Nyoni
Organisations present at the event were; Young Women for Economic Development, Ukuthula Trust, PROWEB, Bulawayo Queens, Women Farmers Association and the Housing Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ).
Stating their concerns, the Housing Association of Zimbabwe represented by Miss Beautiful(sis B), from Glenn Lodge said her focus is on accommodation.
“As women owning lodges, our main concerns are mainly due to licences. There are too many licenses for a lodge, for example if a lodge has six rooms each with a television set. That is a lucrative price for TV licenses,” said Beautiful
Her main request was “one licenses for one property.”
Adding on to that, Sis B requested that roads be fixed as tourists in need of accommodation cannot reach their lodges due to roads that are a “nightmare”.
Responding to that, Dr. Nyoni advised women in tourism to interlink with other women from different sectors in a bid to help each other towards economic development
Young Women for ED, a club which was formed last year by the First Lady, Auxilia Mnangagwa was represented by Sandra Ndebele, who’s a coordinator of the association and popularly known as Bulawayo’s renowned female artist.
She mentioned that they are moving towards the economic development as women and they train young girls into business sectors.
“We are united by one common desire, __ economic development”, said Ndebele.
Bulawayo Queens, a marketing group which was established in 2020 was represented by Bekezela Maplanka whose concern was the failure to get bank loans as women.
She highlighted that they assist each other as Bulawayo women for their business and they focus on grocery clubs, borehole drilling, building materials, business enhancement to mention a few.
Women Farmers Association raised concern over the need to be included in bigger programs that will in turn lead to them “expanding to horticulture and supply Bulawayo with vegetables.”
However, before they could do all that, Women Farmers Association needs to be supplied with abundant land and water. They need the water issue in Bulawayo to be fixed.
WFA was established in 2006 and last year donated 400 bags of mealie meal to old people’s homes
PROWEB (Professional Women, Women Executives and Business Women’s Forum) noted that they have not been able to get funds to finance their business and training for women.
PROWEB representative S. Mhute said, “We have also not received the Covid-19 risk loans that we registered for.”
As a way forward, The Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Hon. Mike Mhike said,
“We will build our women empowerment system from the district level, province and then national.
“Specifically addressing Bulawayo, looking at women in mining, agriculture and so on. All we need is provincial representation. If we do that, it will be easy to interact with you as no one will be left behind.”
He also stated that though funds are limited, the Ministry will continue to try to empower women through programs that support women.
“We will bring all women under one roof so that the president and ambassadors see your businesses and buy from you. There is Open Africa Trade Facility that Zimbabwean women need to occupy and sell their goods.”, said Min. Nyoni
Also adding to that, Honorable Min. S Nyoni warned that the government will soon ban cross boarder trading.
The minister closed by encouraging women to engage in businesses towards economic development and urged that women should normalize making at least a dollar everyday.