It concludes with an encouraging message for young women to pursue military careers, framing the challenges as opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Full TranscriptI will mark uncertain or guessed words with brackets [ ] for clarity.
The story of women in the armyNot just the officersMembers’ partners as wellTHE Zimbabwe [National Army (ZNA)] is currently embracing the concept of empowering both serving women and partners of its male serving members.
This is a mammoth task with a number of complexities and dilemmas besetting it, if the Deputy Director for Army Medical Services, Lieutenant-Colonel Gertrude Mutasa, says.
The fact that the ZNA is addressing the area of empowerment shows that the women in the organisation lack some power.
What power do these women have if any and what power do they lack?
In order to answer this question, we will look at the roles they play in the organisation.
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) was established in 1980 at Independence in 1980 with the merging of the Rhodesian Army, Zimbabwe African Liberation Army (Znla) and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra).
All the three forces had female serving members who were also integrated into the ZNA.
Apart from the army women, the serving members’ wives, statutory classified as “Army Dependants”.
Although their problems may differ in some aspects, any consideration of empowering one of these two groups should logically include the others, bearing in mind their respective relationships to the male soldiers,” she says.
There also continues to be confusion on the part of women to serve in the army as evidenced by enquiries and those applying and actually being attested into the ZNA.
Up to 1996, women’s entry into the ZNA was through the specialist and administrative fields such as social work, nursing, medicine, pharmacy, legal services, accounting, administration, chaplaincy, mechanics, dietetics, and nutrition, environment, mental health, signals, military police, public relations, education, catering, secretarial, photography, health education and so on.
Women in the ZNA have not experienced the same waves and heights of promotions as they have witnessed among their male counterparts.
There are not female officers in the policy making echelons of the ranks of full colonel and above.
This is different though from the situation in the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the public and private sectors where there is now a fair representation of women in the decision-making echelons.
The ZNA women have now been heard and the organisation is saying: we also want to give our women a voice, choice and space.
The South African, American, Zambia and other armies have long achieved this development leap, Lt-Col Mutasa says.
As specialists in the ZDF women bring with them expert power.
The ZNA has minimal influence on their economic power as they are assimilated by appointment to their counterparts in the public service.
Experience, however, has shown that expert and economic power are practically ineffective in the military, which is basically a class and highly hierarchical organisation driven by power as legitimised by rank. “So, the most obvious way for the ZNA to empower its women is to accord them appropriate ranks. ”RecruitmentThe first challenge is to recognise the fact that the specialist corps have stunted establishments with extremely minimal chances of promotion to the rank of full colonel only, a limitation which is also felt by men.
The power line lies in the infantry corps which offers promotion up to the rank of general. “A logical place to start therefore is at recruitment.
That is to give the women a choice to serve in the infantry,” Lt-Col Mutasa says.
A very welcome development that army women have been advocating for was the enlisting of women in the infantry’s 18 month cadet course for the first time in the history of Zimbabwe in 1996.
This led to the harvesting of 12 female officers and one of them, Lt.
Minyothando Baloyi, has had her stint as platoon commander in Angola. “It is hoped that these women will have free and fair access to all courses that will enable them to rise up the ladder of power.
They have demonstrated their potential. ”Brigadier Sibusiso B.
Moyo, the former commandant of the Zimbabwe Military Academy where the women were trained, said: “There is no difference between men and women except for their physiology.
Another difference is that where a man accumulates to a given exercise in three days, it may be four days for a woman and at the end of it all they will be the same.
In fact some female cadets have become so strong as to outpace the men. ”PromotionFor the specialist corps the challenge is to afford women equal opportunity in the area of training and courses which are requisites for promotion.
There are two positive developments giving hope to ZNA women.
First, the appointment of the first woman Director of Army Social Services (DASS), Lt-Col Hellen Tapfumanei, signaled a sign of gender sensitivity on the part of the command element.
Second, the admission of three women including DASS into the Joint Command and Staff Course which had been an exclusively male reserve until the 1997 intake, while two more women are on the 1998 course. “It was good that those women who have completed the course demonstrated potential that has been lying dormant for years.
Now that these women have attained their qualifications, ZNA women are looking forward to them being promoted to the ranks of full colonel and above, given the strategic appointments they have been given, Lt-Col Mutasa says.
EmploymentHaving passed the hurdle of recruiting women into the infantry, the next challenge is that of equal opportunity for deployment.
Many male soldiers do not agree what women be involved in active combat and this remains a controversial issue.
The ZNA has not yet deployed women to observer missions but has, however, deployed four women to peacekeeping missions.
Retired Capt Masiyundisi, a nurse, was deployed among male colleagues to Somalia in 1994.
Lt-Col Charles Muchero who was also deployed with her says that she was hard working, disciplined, mature and mixed well with other Zimbabweans as well as foreigners and people admired her.
She was dubbed “The Buffalo soldier. ”“When 23 Infantry Battalion deployed to Angola for the 1997 Peacekeeping Mission, three women were among the contingent.
Masibera, a general nurse, says it was a challenge to go and in fact there were other women from Namibia and Zambia.
If required to go again, she is ready for the march.
Lieutenant Minyothando Baloyi, one of the female cadets recruited into infantry, was deployed in Angola as a platoon commander.
The battalion adjutant, Capt Mapedzamombe says she performed very well just as her male counterparts.
Her duties include commanding patrols, vehicle convoy escorts, observer mission escorts and demobilisation exercise.
It was a challenge about which she has a lot to say.
She enjoyed her stint and noted that though there were women from other nations, Zimbabwe was a “first” among those deployed to have a woman commanding in infantry.
Women from the other countries envied her and undertook to take the Zimbabwean example back to their countries.
Lt Baloyi also found lots of admirers among the Angolan civilian population who always stopped her for a chat.
She is also ready to go back if required to do so.
The third woman Cpl Marulli, was typist/secretary.
A lot of female general nurses also have experiences to tell about their stints in Matabeleland and Mozambique.
Another of the cadets, Lt Hlengiwe Dube has done well in the Parachute Regiment.
According to the Commanding Officer, Lt-Col Thomas Moyo, Lt Dube is the commander of the machine gun platoon.
She has passed the selection course for parachute training.
Lt Dube says, the secret to gaining recognition is to know your work, be confident, and never ask for or accept special treatment on account of your gender.
Affirmative Action“While the organisation asserts that the ZNA is not designed to create different employment opportunities for men and women, it is implied, at the beginning, to employ some form of affirmative action particularly for those women who now meet the criteria for promotion to be promoted,” says Lt-Col Mutasa.
The ZNA hopes to initiate and sustain gender awareness programs with the aid of the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network and others.
Members’ wives hold a cross-section of qualifications and experiences.
They include bankers, lawyers, school-teachers, nurses, media persons and a very good number of unskilled workers in various fields.
Some wives are, however, not gainfully employed and in some cases of very low educational qualifications.
The ZNA has an obligation to provide free health services and safe motherhood care where facilities allow.
While the professional wives are employed, the unskilled workers and the unemployed are in need for educational, economic, financial, spiritual and other empowerment.
This is extremely crucial since the serving members, because of the nature of their work, are highly mobile and in some cases hardly live with their families.
It is essential therefore, that the wives be empowered to carry their families adequately and prudently in the absence of their husbands.
After all problems that beset a member’s family while he is on operations always come to the army to roost.
Thus, with a passion for informally empowering both the army women and the members’ wives, the commander of the army, Lt-General Chiwenga advocated for and engineered the formation of the Zimbabwe Army Wives and Women’s Association (ZAWWA), with a central idea for their personal and economic advancement.
ZAWWA has not taken off the ground as well as had been expected because, among other reasons, of the lack of interest and awareness of the existence of the association on the part of the husbands.
It is hoped that the planned Gender Awareness Programs will facilitate the acceptance of this association. “For those women who have constituted themselves into ZAWWA chapters, there has been a general lack of knowledge needed, say, to embark on and manage income generating projects.
Such knowledge requires training which should be paid for.
Needless to say with the chilly economic environment, many have found this extra expense insurmountable.
This has become a vicious circle which needs to be turned into a virtuous one,” Lt-Col Mutasa notes.
Three members who have attended a Zimbabwe Council of Churches course on Business Management will be assisted to set up income generating projects.
With their success, it is hoped membership will follow. “The ZNA is not inventing the wheel in this area.
There are such flourishing associations in the Nigerian, British and American armies and others.
We are still to learn from them. ”While there is no written law for discrimination against women, lack of policy leaves room for it.
It is felt that a review of gender issues by the ZNA will result in the rewriting of the script and policy formulation based on evidence rather than opinion.
The areas to be reviewed should include recruitment, selection, training and career development, promotion, conditions of services, sexual harassment and other gender related issues.
There should also be a construction of the definition of empowerment in all the co-actors in its implementation, and the identification of limitations at play and how to address them.
Then a plan or plans of action should be designed, with mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation in place. “On the whole the organisation and individuals should then offer their commitment to the processes and strategies for gender equity.
The Zimbabwe will never regret or look back once this dormant but volcanic source is tapped. “For the young women who want to join the army I say seize the opportunity when it arises.
There are no problems in the army but challenges, and not hindrances but they motivate.
If you desire to exploit your God-given talents and gifts – go for it. ”Related
Source: Gambakwe. 🔗 Read Full Article
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