The Concept of the sperm in the women's struggle : Linda Masarira

When it comes to women issues I don't compromise because women have been systematically marginalized in different facets of the society. I am encouraging all women to step up and be counted. I reiterate to the concept of the sperm. We all struggled against millions of other sperms to make it to our mother's ova, we struggled to fertilize her egg, we struggled to come out through the birth canal and even struggled to have our first breath and adapt to the new environment.

I am appalled by the way that women in Zimbabwe shy away from politics and governance issues. They feel like the struggle for self determination is a struggle for men because of various gender stereotypes in our communities. Women do not want to join the struggle yet they struggle everyday. 

Life is a constant struggle. To be human and to be alive is a struggle. As a sperm you fought millions of sperms to get to your mothers womb. Don't be shocked its true and you also struggled to come out of your mothers womb through the vagina, that was a struggle. As a new born baby you struggled to adapt to a new environment and to suckle your mothers nipple.

You struggled to sit falling every time, you struggled to stand, you struggled to walk, you struggled to talk and struggled to learn... Today my fellow woman, why are you saying you are not in the struggle? Why are you afraid when you managed to swim through and fight millions of sperms for survival. Is this the struggle that you endured when you wriggled through the birth canal?

Yes there are historical issues of marginalization of women in governance processes, structural deformities in political party rank and file, cultural barriers, a strong existing patriarchal system, misogyny, etc. The women's struggle has been alive since 1918 and we now need to implement some of the achievements of the women's struggle in Zimbabwe. Our constitution speaks to 50/50 gender representation in section 56 and all state organs and functions should ensure that gender equality is promoted yet women still feel comfortable accepting quota systems of less than 50% as if we are children of a lesser God.

We can't continue being discriminated against gender and its high time we stop whining and start acting. Women need to unite for the sake of our girl children and future generations to come. We need to ensure that we leave a legacy of equal opportunities for every Zimbabwean. We have the power to transform this nation, to unite it and rebuild it only if we start focusing on the real issues affecting this land.

Zimbabwe is blessed with very intelligent, enterprising and hardworking women. Unfortunately most of them are not politically conscious and prefer to stand and watch from the periphery which has been very detrimental to the quality of our livelihoods. If we struggled from the sperm to the ova, what is limiting us to struggle for economic freedoms, gender and labour justice, academic freedoms, constitutionalism, etc? 

All the problems we are facing as a nation have a heavier burden on the woman and are crosscutting whether you are LEAD, ZanuPF, MDCT, ZAPU, NPP, the other MDC member or not.

Dear Woman, Dear Sister 2021 is the year for us to converge and commit to rebuild Zimbabwe for our posterity and self determination as women in Zimbabwe. To carry on and push forward the agenda of women which was started years back by some powerful women, some who are late and some who are still alive. We salute you! All the problems we are facing in Zimbabwe are political and we can't afford to divorce ourselves from that brutal fact. We constitute about 54% of the population of Zimbabwe and we are the key economic drivers with the capacity to influence the change that we want in this country. We can't all be politicians, let us support women who are running for public office morally and join their campaign teams. Let's support women in business by advertising and buying their products and lastly let us support women in sport and ensure that they get decent allowances not the paltry allowances that ZIFA offers the MIGHTY WARRIORS.

We are the change we have been waiting for. Its time women become the kingmakers and stop being used to chant slogans, ululate and gyrate at political. We are greater than that. We are limitless and we can do it.

Survival of the fittest is the order of the day. Life is meant to be enjoyed not to be endured. Why are you silent? Why are you living a pathetic and miserable life? Are you doing justice to your children and future generations? Life is a constant struggle. Rise up and fight for your rights. Zimbabwe belongs to every 

Zimbabwean. Nguva yemadzimai yakwana. Taneta nekutambudzwa nekushoropodzwa tiri vanhuwo.

We will not be silenced, hatinyaradzwe and hatityiswe zvekumhanya.

Linda Masarira analysis of the chaos in South Africa

By Linda Tsungirirai Masarira

13 July 2021

It's not just the Zulus, it's the generality of the South African masses that are living pathetic lives in desperation, poverty, hunger, joblessness and in a continuous state of debt with no hope for relief at all. 

The so called Rainbow Nation was a mirage. Until they address the inequalities, fundamental questions and issues that led to their struggle for independence, South Africa will be in cyclical problems. It is unfortunate that South Africans were sold a dummy at the CODESA talks leading to independence in 1994.

Native South Africans are still living in oppression and have realized that it is not yet uhuru as black people are not empowered to run the South Africa economy. The economic crisis is South Africa was already tinder dry and needed a spark to ignite and let the pent out force out... the fundamental question of the revolution is still unanswered and now is the time to correct the wrongs and to give black people in South Africa economic power.

The deep state or the vested South African media controlled by Settler Colonial Capital and vested interests wants to create this crisis as an illusion of the current government versus the Zulus in a bid to perpetuate the apartheid divide and rule mindset. Unfortunately the native South African isijikile and need core issues that affect their livelihoods addressed.

The judiciary inflamed their innate pent up frustrations and anger and this out of context judicial dictatorship and judicial activist judgement was the spark they needed to release their pent up feelings. The law has to be applied in a proper context and foresee the likely ramifications of their judgements. If learned judges behave like they are applying a text book or theoretical judgement then they are simply perpetuating a settler colonial legal jurisprudence. The law or judgements are not an illusion but should also forsee and be implemented within historical and legal parameters anchored on and in the historical context of each environment. 

The South African judiciary needs a total overhaul to reflect and be embedded in the post 1994 dispensation. The deep state and old money are playing havoc in RSA and trying to subvert the people's will, hence the current morass and general mayhem prevailing. 

My simple analysis being that we can not simply frame this as a Zulu nations versus other ethnic formations in the current scheme of things lest we fall into the colonial trap of analysing the nature of the post colonial state. It is in my view, broader than that. We can hypotheticate and interrogate this question further at a later stage. 

If they're not careful the construct of the RSA state as we currently know it may disintegrate Soviet style. South Africa is a country waiting to disintegrate Soviet style or Yugoslavia style, with an underhand of Western and Settler Colonial manipulation. Cyril Ramaphosa is their creation and his factional acolytes captured the state and it's arms, now look where they've taken the so called " rainbow nation". We need to analyse and frame what is happening in RSA with a deep forensic eye and mind. Inequalities and discrimination abounds in RSA, the promised land has not been reached yet and the people are now seeing beyond the facade.

In essence I think that RSA needs a total judicial and system overhaul and transformation. Codesa was an epitome of a revolution deferred, now the internal dynamics are playing out with ghastly and terrible consequences. If it was Zimbabwe, they would have been all over all news sites singing human rights abuses, rule of law or whatever theoretical hegemonic textbook lectures. How many civilian protestors have been shot dead in South Africa so far? SA media is reporting about 26 and we all know they are more than that and today my question is where are the so called Human Rights defenders or Western Press now in RSA when people are being hunted down and gunned by Settler Colonial vigilantes? Where are the statements from embassies? These gun totting vigilantes are wrecking havoc writ large and the Western world, so called world policemen are not commenting or condemning these outright human rights violations.

The South African government must deal with the deep underlying structural defects in the architecture of the RSA economy and ensure that all black people have opportunities to wealth creation. The SA judiciary should not pander to the whims of settler colonialism. The fundamental national questions needs answers now. The South Africa constitution is too theoretical, CODESA was just a compromise. If South African leaders want to fix the crisis in South Africa they have to be sincere and deal with redistribution of wealth, address inequalities and be sincere in empowering all native South Africans.

Leadership in South Africa need wisdom to deal with the crisis bedeviling RSA right now.