Minister Muchinguri
Moleen Machingura Herald Reporter—
Government should translate the new Constitution into the country’s 16 local languages to enable citizens to understand the country’s supreme law, Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Cde Oppah Muchinguri has said. Speaking at the national women’s constitutional conference on making the constitution work for women in Harare on Thursday, Minister Muchinguri said it was important to translate the Constitution to remove language barriers.
“The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs should put the Constitution in our local languages so that people can read and fully understand the new supreme law,” she said. “The same constitution recognises the 16 languages as official, hence there is need to translate the Constitution into these languages.”
Minister Muchinguri urged Government and civil society organisations to educate the people on the provisions of the new Constitution.
“We now have the Constitution, but Government and civil society organisations should go back to the people to interpret the provisions of the document because if it remains in the book, not everyone will have time to read and comprehend it.”
Minister Muchinguri said women were still facing challenges in various economic sectors where precedence was given to males.
“It is then our sincere hope that this document becomes a lived reality for all women as they are still facing several challenges in economic, social, and political sectors,” she said.
“The women have raised a concern that they are not benefiting fully in most schemes introduced by Government for agricultural inputs. Most of them do not have collateral to access funds from financial institutions, hence they remain marginalised and at the tail end of the value chain.”
In a speech read on his behalf by Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made said women needed to be fully incorporated into the agricultural sector.
“The strength of our strategy is that it recognises that gender equality is not only a human right, but that growth in the agricultural productivity and production will not happen unless women are fully integrated into the sector,” he said.