Fred M'membe

 

Socialist Party reporter

The Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe has announced that the party shall adopt at least 50 percent women for the parliamentary and local government seats in the 2021 general elections.

Speaking at a recent interview on Let The People Talk programme on Radio Phoenix, Dr M’membe said Zambia had under representation of women in council chambers and parliament and yet they suffered the most not only in Zambia but the world over.

“The leadership of the Socialist Party realise that there is under representation of women, because in all the areas we have visited so far the councillors are men, members of parliament are men, the mayors are men and that helped us see that there is need to change as women represent the great majority of our people and also in terms of the issues that we face, the crisis that the country faces, they bear them the most. So women have more to gain from the changes because they suffer the most. When schools are not going so well, it’s the women who suffer the most. When hospitals are not going so well, it’s the women who suffer the most because they are the ones who take care of the ill. When food is in short supply, it’s the women who suffer, and if there is no water it’s the women who suffer,” said Dr M’membe.

Dr M’membe said women bear the greatest burden and therefore should have more to say in everything.

“We came up with a decision that not less than 50 percent of our MPs should be women, not less than 50 percent of our councillors should be women. Is it easy? No, it’s not an easy thing to do, we are a society that is dominated by men and in politics its worse, but even in the traditional system, actually the traditional system is better. You do find women have a voice in the traditional system than they have in our Zambian politics, and yet we claim to be more civilised than the traditional system,” he said.

He added that women in traditional system get better justice than in our courts that require one to have money to pay lawyers.

“Women work the most in agriculture and in many things, but they are the poorest. When it comes to politics, they don’t even have money to pay for their campaigns and also because they care for the family, they make sure that the family is provided for with whatever little is there, a man can take what is supposed to be for housekeeping, he can take it to a political campaign. He won’t care, so because of that he has some advantages and women are disadvantaged, they don’t have the resources to engage in politics especially in expensive politics where you have to pay nomination fees and politics full of bribes, they stand with no chance, and women are less corrupt, very few of them engage in corruption, and they don’t have the resources anyway to corrupt anybody,” added Dr M’membe.

He said this affirmative action shall promote democratic principles in the governance of the country.

In the photo, recently adopted Members of Parliament female candidates: Reverend Moddy Chisha Nonde – Chitambo, Nanyangwe Naomi – Mbala and Pikiti Margaret – Malole.

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