Guest column: Miriam T Majome

THIS week the normally invisible Gender Commission was in the news for all the wrong reasons. It was widely reported and circulated that one of its officials had suggested the formulation of a dress code for female students in tertiary institutions to protect themselves from being sexually violated by men.

It was inconceivable how a public official this side of the 60s thought it was a good idea to think it, let alone say it, at a public forum. Due to the unwanted attention and public pressure the Gender Commission subsequently gave a lukewarm, but nevertheless, welcome denial of the statement. But like all bad news, it had already dashed out into the world like a plague. Even major international news sources like the BBC picked it up and beamed it for the world to see our latest national antics. We were embarrassed and disappointed by the Commission because the statement minimised all the work that has been done to stop blaming women for their sexual assault. The Commission’s officials will be very careful what they say from now on and avoid being loose cannons. The faux pas also helped to cast back into the public discourse the never ending debate about the perceived link between women’s clothes and sexual violation. From the time they are toddlers young girls are taught to dress “decently” to protect themselves from being sexually abused by men. All little girls are taught that skirts should never be too far above the knee, otherwise they will be inviting trouble. They are taught that they have no one to blame, but themselves if they “provoke” men because men are unable to control themselves. But how true exactly are these assertions? Is there any scientific basis for these widespread beliefs or they are just well preserved time honoured myths? These myths and beliefs are not limited to Zimbabwe and are as commonplace here as they are worldwide.

Research findings presented in an academic paper titled Sexy Dressing Revisited: Does Target Dress Play a Part in Sexual Harassment Cases? Researcher Theresa Beiner revealed that there is no truth to the assertion of the link between sexual assault and dressing. More importantly, the research showed that people believe that women’s dressing is a major contributor in sexual assault, despite unavailability of statistical evidence to back this up. There is no observable link between reported incidence of sexual assault and the way the victims were dressed when they were sexually assaulted. Beiner says the belief is strong and very important because it plays a big role in the adjudication and outcomes of sexual offence cases. She quotes evidence which shows that judicial officials are influenced by this belief when determining cases before them. Those who hold this view personally believe that the victims had some responsibility for their own violation because of their “provocative” dressing, thus were complicity in their own violation. Therefore, the perpetrator cannot be held fully responsible because the victim forced him to violate her. Even though the official position is that the victim’s dressing is not a factor it does not stop defence lawyers from asking accusatory questions about dressing and sneaking in evidence to that effect to try and attribute some of the blame to her. These practices and beliefs play out throughout the world in almost all rape criminal cases. In 2018 a defence lawyer in Ireland argued that the lacy underwear worn by a 17-year-old rape victim was a sign of consent so he argued that the assailant had acted reasonably by raping her. In India, where rape is extremely common, especially gang rape, an 11-year-old girl victim of a gang rape was blamed for having invited it.

Many different studies do not show dressing as a factor in sexual offence cases. What is consistent in the various statistics is that rape victims tend to be young single women of lower socio-economic status.

Sexual violence, such as sexual harassment, assault and rape, is widely agreed to be about power rather than sexual attraction. Young single women feature more on the statistics because they are more vulnerable than other groups as they are less capable of defending and protecting themselves from violence and physical dominance. They are the least likely to have the physical and economic resources to pursue justice after they have been assaulted compared to older more assertive and economically better off women. This is the reason rape is more common in poorer and disadvantaged communities where there are more chances of getting away with sex crime. Rapists, like all criminals, target victims who offer the least resistance and the least trouble. Rape has nothing to do with sexual attractiveness and provocation.

If dressing was a factor, women in predominantly Islamic countries would not experience sexual violence. Muslim women in head to toe covering are commonly sexually harassed and violated as much as other women in other parts of the world. The hijab is not a deterrent to men who want to rape women. In Egypt the United Nations Women conducted a study of masculinity and gender relations in Islamic countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The study revealed that 43% of Egyptian men believe that women like to be sexually harassed because they enjoy the “attention.” Two-thirds of the male respondents admitted to have sexually harassed women. More than 75% of the men blamed their behaviour on the “women’s provocative clothing.” Just how provocative are Islamic dress forms for women like burkas, hijabs and niqabs, is anyone’s guess. This supports Beiker’s findings outlined above that the belief of the existence of a link between sex crimes and dressing is more prevalent than the reality itself.

In August, in another predominantly Islamic country, Malaysia, Member of Parliament was forced to apologise and retract a motion after unexpected public backlash. He had moved a motion seeking legal protection for male sexual assailants if the women victims wore what were deemed to be provocative clothes. Moving the motion he said: “Due to what women wear, we are seduced and end up breaking the country’s laws and face prosecution”.

In tandem with this is the equally common and unfortunate notion that men are incapable of controlling their sexual urges so they are forced into committing sexual crimes against their will. It is believed that it is in their nature and they cannot help themselves whenever they perceive that a woman “wants it” and is openly “inviting it”. The Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte disgraced himself earlier this year by inadvertently showing his inner untamed beast.

He foolishly thought it was wise to speak off the cuff while giving a speech on sexual harassment. He said “as long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases.” After the widespread condemnation that ensued his spokesman was quick to say that the President had been trying to crack a joke. It is good practice for politicians to stick to their prepared speeches because they rarely ever make good comedians.

The encouraging thing is that there are many men who detest sexual violence and reject the myths and stereotypes surrounding it. Victim blaming is done equally by both women and men. There are many women who believe that women ask to be raped because of their dressing because they believe men cannot control their sexual urges. It was heartening to note that the majority of men who responded to the Gender Commission’s guffaw on social media condemned the statement. They highlighted everything that was wrong with the Commission’s dress code suggestion. Many men do not subscribe to the notion that they are out of control primal sex maniacs who are always ready to ravage women if they think the woman is ‘asking for it’. This is encouraging in the fight against sexual violence and the myths that sustain it.

 Miriam Tose Majome is a legal officer for Veritas Zimbabwe. She writes in her personal capacity. She can be contacted on mtmajome@gmail.com and Twitter @MajomeMiriam

Opinion: Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Laura Zommer, Noko Makgato and Will Moy

ACCORDING to fact-checkers at the Washington Post, United States President Donald Trump has made more than 13 000 false or misleading claims since his inauguration. It is no wonder some people doubt that the fact-checking of politicians’ claims is an answer to the problems of this misinformation age.

When politicians and journalists from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia met at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London in July, they acknowledged that the rise of misinformation has contributed to declining public trust in politicians and the media. But effective solutions have not been forthcoming. When Europe’s political and business elite met the same month for the conference Les Rencontres Économiques d’Aix-en-Provence 2019, they, too, saw few options for renewing trust.

But that does not mean that there are none. As the leaders or founders of fact-checking organisations in Africa, Latin America and Europe, we know that our work can play a powerful role in countering the effects of misinformation and restoring faith in reliable sources.

Fulfilling this duty requires, first and foremost, a comprehensive understanding of the challenges we face. Most of the world’s almost 200 fact-checking organisations operate on the assumption that presenting the public with corrected information will generally convince them to update a false view.

Not surprisingly, most academic work on fact-checking has aimed at testing this assumption. The results are promising. While nobody could claim that presenting people with correct information guarantees that they will adjust their views, repeated studies have shown that fact checking helps the public revise their understanding of claims, even when the finding contradicts a firmly held belief.

But simply publishing fact-checks is not enough. For starters, even with the greatest resources, it would not be possible to trace all those who have seen the misinformation being corrected and put our fact-check in front of them. And there is simply too much misinformation circulating online and in public debate to fact-check every false claim made.

That is why, beyond identifying and correcting important misinformation, fact-checkers must engage with politicians, the traditional media, social-media platforms and other relevant institutions to reduce the supply.

This means reaching out to public figures to request on-the-record corrections, lodging complaints with standards bodies and providing training to media organisations. It also means working with tech companies to find ways to prevent the wider circulation of misinformation, including across international borders.

At the same time, fact-checking organisations should not simply focus on tackling false information, but also on identifying sources of reliable information and pointing their readers and followers to them.

And we should work with schools and other educational platforms to help teach people to identify false or misleading claims. This is the approach taken by our organisations, and as small and under-resourced as they are, the impact is already apparent.

For example, in January, Ibrahima Diouf, the economist in charge of writing the manifesto for one of Senegal’s major political parties, Parti de l’Unité et du Rassemblement, told a University of Dakar researcher that, because of the Africa Check team’s work, writers of political-party manifestos paid more attention to the accuracy of their figures.

Similarly, in South Africa, Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, the general manager of the ruling African National Congress, declared in a public meeting that Africa Check “plays an important role” in keeping political parties and their leaders accountable. A few months earlier, the South African Police Service officially revised the national crime statistics, following an Africa Check intervention, admitting that the data were worse than they had initially reported. Reducing the supply of misinformation by engaging with those in power works.

At the same time, in Argentina, the fact-checking organisation Chequeado has created the country’s first programme to teach critical thinking and nemews literacy skills to young people.

The results of this effort to inoculate the young against the harm caused by misinformation mirrored those of a 2016 study, which showed a huge leap in the ability of school-age children in Uganda to distinguish good and bad health information after being taught similar skills.

Finally, effective fact-checking requires efforts to improve public access to reliable information. In the United Kingdom, for example, Full Fact has worked with the Office of National Statistics not only to open up its data to a wider audience, but also to ensure that it is delivered in a form the public will understand.

While we shouldn’t underestimate the scale of the threat posed by misinformation and declining trust, or the complexity of their causes, the problem is not nearly as intractable as some seem to believe.

By addressing not only the symptoms of misinformation and mistrust, but also the systemic problems that underlie them, fact-checking organisations, media, government, and business can resist these worrisome trends.

 Peter Cunliffe-Jones is the founder of Africa Check. Laura Zommer is executive director of Chequeado. Noko Makgato is executive director of Africa Check. Will Moy is chief executive of Full Fact.

Editorial Comment

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidency continues to deflate ordinary people’s hopes as he appears completely out of touch with what is happening on the ground as seen by the unwarranted threats he issued to business.

Zimbabwe is currently an unfavourable place to do business because of Mnangagwa’s “trial and error” economic policies that have not done anything to improve the country’s economy, which is now far worse than when he swept to power on November 27 after a military coup that ejected the late long-time ruler, the late Robert Mugabe.

Business people do not just wake up and arbitrarily increase prices, as these are determined by market fundamentals. The threat to “whip business into line” is not going to improve the economic situation in the country. It will, in fact, worsen it. The Mnangagwa administration needs to depart from its “command” approach because it will not work — just like it never worked under Mugabe, but only impoverished the population more.

Mnangagwa’s admission that he did not understand why there was continuous rise in prices, simply shows he is either lights out on economic fundamentals or his ministers are misleading him.
Prices are determined by market forces. If those selling goods have to import them and cannot access foreign currency from the banks, they will do so on the black market to keep their business afloat, and that consequently means they would factor the cost of the foreign currency in their pricing models.

Government simply needs to admit that the local currency has failed, just like they were warned when they first introduced the bond note. And as long as they do not attend to the fundamentals, threatening business will only trigger shortages of basic commodities. Business will simply close shop because they cannot be forced to sell their goods at sub-economic prices for political expediency.

Confidence plays a huge part in people making business decisions and it is without doubt that Zimbabweans from all walks of life have no confidence in the local currency or this administration’s ability to deal with the current economic crisis. All this means Zimbabweans have to pay for the risks businesses are taking to do business in this country. It means higher prices.

It is common knowledge that corruption has been a major drain on the economy, and government efforts so far to fight it have not proved genuine, especially because some of those fingered have very close ties to the President.

It is strange that Mnangagwa’s presidency is associated with threats and the striking doctors are his latest victims. It is now obvious that the government’s failure to grasp basic economics stems from Mnangagwa’s inability to understand that he doesn’t have the power of God to perfect situations by command and that he needs the finesse of a diplomat.

Every day and with each new crisis, Mnangagwa’s reformist mask slips away and the true colours come out. Doctors do not need external forces to incite them to demonstrate for what they think is right.

We do hope Mnangagwa’s forthcoming meeting with the business community will help him appreciate the challenges they are facing and that the buck stops with him.

TODAY we conclude our mini-series on fighting corruption. I hope you have been reading each week, but if you missed you can find any article on the Newsday website by searching Ashley Thaba. As our final article, I want to share the “trump card” to fighting corruption. The 100% guarantee solution.

Selfishness comes easy. Watch a toddler steal the toy or cry when she doesn’t get his/her way. No one has to teach us to do what feels good for us, even if it hurts others. God gives us hope for a different style of life — the strength within and the wisdom to choose a life of selflessness, a life of sacrificial love, a life of serving. The most amazing thing is He doesn’t just command us to do this; He first modelled it by doing it Himself in the life of Jesus. By that same Spirit of Christ living in us, we can find the strength and even experience a change of heart where we actually want and have the ability to do the right thing. Speaking from experience, after surrendering myself and asking God to take over, I frequently will start to do something or say something that I know, in my mind, goes against the Word of God, but my flesh wants it so I do it anyway. Then, I have this strong sense of conviction where God’s Spirit clearly speaks to my inner being saying: “Don’t do this. You will hurt someone. Don’t do this. It is wrong. You will regret it. This will get you into trouble…”

It is like an internal moral compass always guiding me to the Truth. Whether I follow, it is up to me, but I can testify that if you ask him to take over the reins of your life, he is faithful to guide and direct and be that still small voice saying this is the way — walk here. His word truly becomes a lamp to your feet illuminating the way — one step at a time, one day at a time… until you look back and realise it has been a week since you did that action or thought; that thought which you never imagined you could stop! Freedom is available. In Christ, you do not have to continue to do things which later make you ashamed or later hurt yourself and others.

Many people know “Freedom in Christ” to be a sermon they have heard at church, but they haven’t experienced that type of release from bondage of anger, sexual immorality, greed and depression, among others.

They know these types of thoughts and actions are not healthy. They can see what they are doing isn’t giving them the internal peace, love and joy they deeply desire, but it is like they are a slave. Despite good intentions, they fall back into the same bad habits.

Romans 7:15-25 talks about this destructive cycle.

The only hope in becoming victorious is by choosing to surrender control of your life to your creator and saviour and truly trust Him no matter what. Study His word, His guide book: The Bible.
This outlines exactly what to do. Ask his Spirit to whisper to you to stop whenever you are doing; something he knows isn’t His will for you. Don’t be deceived by your feelings! Let Him be in control! Don’t allow yourself to justify why you shouldn’t be obedient. Just trust Him.

Let me give an example. As a parent, I frequently give my children commands such as: “Do your homework when you get home from school. Don’t eat too many sweets.” As their mother, who deeply loves them, I am convinced that these are good rules meant to protect them and will ultimately help them to enjoy their lives more! If they learn how to manage their time and be responsible students. I believe this will set a foundation for them to be productive in the workforce one day.
I believe, if they eat healthy, it will help them avoid many preventable diseases which will plague their lives.

In theory, they understand why I am saying what I say. I can even ask them to explain it to me and they can! I always try and explain to my children why I want them to do what I say.

However, in reality, any given day, despite their head knowledge, they would quickly ditch homework and go play with friends and eat so many sweets they would get sick! Why? Our nature leads us to do whatever feels good to us in the moment! My only hope is that they will learn to trust me over their own thoughts! This isn’t because I am on a power trip! It is because I deeply love them and have been around longer than them and want their best! I know their own thoughts can trick them and end up leading them to make decisions which will hurt them and lead them to make choices they will regret in their future.

God has been around longer than us. If we can submit to His leadership and listen to His guiding words, despite our desires to do the contrary, we would find tremendous joy, peace and love! In fact, imagine this… if you lived your life the way your creator intended, you would lead the fullest most abundant life possible because that is how you were created to live!

On those days where it is so tempting to participate in actions you know are wrong, for example, to get ill-gotten financial gain, let me leave you with this verse. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36

Ashley Thaba is a popular life-coach, team-building facilitator and motivational speaker. She is also the author of Conquering the Giants and Dive In. You can view some of her works on her YouTube channel: Ashley Thaba.

SUCCESS LIFE: Jonah Nyoni

“If you understand that wasted time is a wasted life, you will start running away from television, you will begin to run away from movies, you will run away from games like criminal case and candy crush.” Sunday Adelaga

Wasted time is worse than wasted money. We usually say time is money. There are many ways we waste time. Failure is created by small accumulative activities, and so is success. Success takes those small bricks every day. Most people need to learn how to manage their minute, their hour which will lead to the whole day.

When we start off our year, most people will be excited and they look forward to a greater and productive year. It is sad that by the 15th of January most people will have defaulted to their usual routine that leads to a mediocre life. Your daily ritual becomes your reality. What are some of the things that waste our time?

People

We live with people who eat into time. These might be our trusted friends, family, and even foes. Any person who is in your life should add one of the three: Happiness, value or money. If they cannot, assess what they are bringing.

Life is too short and valuable to waste your time with people who waste their own lives. Never waste your time with people who drain your energy or people who bring you down. Simply get them off your life or get off their lives. Accept reality, and stop wasting time with some people.

Pleasure

Life should be exciting and worth living for, however, pleasure should also have boundaries. It is easy to be involved in pleasure adding activities, but at times they lead to a bankrupt life.
There is also negative pleasure, this includes things such as drugs, illicit parties and alcohol. They give temporary pleasure, yet they have long term effects on our body and brain.

Wrong focus

We go through a lot in life. At times there are self-created problems and self-inflicted pains.
We can’t change our past, but we can do something now to change our future. When you never graduate from your past, you are paralysing your future. Remember, no one is exempted from failure and mistakes and you should never bury ourselves in those negative experiences. A wrong focus leads to a painful life. Tony Robbins says: “Where focus goes, energy goes.”

Internet and social media

The internet and social media are good tools that we use, but the same tool can be very addictive. In addition, social media has its social ills that could damage our morals. Checking text messages might seem small, but in the end, it corrodes your time. Whatsapp is very enticing and people love to chat and gossip, but most of those things don’t add value to one’s life. We love surfing the internet and constantly checking and reading emails. All those add to our time lost.

Being a “yes” person

In life we should learn that the word “no” is not as negative as we assume. We have said yes to things that we cannot accomplish. I realise that, the more I say no to some activities the better I can manage my time. The big problem is that we want to please people. Margaret Thatcher once said: “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you should achieve nothing.” Don’t be a people pleasure. Do what you love, and love what you do.

Pursuing the wrong things

At times we enroll for a wrong course that does not fit with our purpose or mould. At times our parents choose what we should study at university and we spend our lives investing in the wrong craft. Yes, that might give us money, but might not give us fulfillment. At times we waste time on jobs that drain us, keep us grouchy and grounded. Choose your life and live your life! Stop wasting your time and get into your grind!

Jonah Nyoni is an author, success coach and certified leadership/business trainer. He is the author of Inspiration for Success and Success Within Reach.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

MEDIA practitioners yesterday said Information minister’s powers over the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) should be limited and that any laws that seek to criminalise journalism must be done away with.

This came up during a public hearing at the Parliament of Zimbabwe on the ZMC Bill conducted by the Prince Dubeko Sibanda-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Information and Media.

The objective of the ZMC Bill is to protect the rights to freedom of expression and the freedom of the media as granted under section 61 of the Constitution. It will also extensively amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act by repealing all provisions relating to the regulation and control of the media.

Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe executive director Loughty Dube said the Bill was full of clauses which allowed the Information Minister to intervene in the operations of ZMC, which, therefore, meant that those clauses must be done away with.

Section 2 (e) of the Bill states, “any other form of dissemination of information which may be prescribed by the Minister”. This is a very dangerous statement. Section 7 (1) (a) and (b) says the Minister of Information and the Minister of Finance are responsible for appointment of the chief executive officer. This is against corporate governance principles,” Dube said.

Dube also said the Bill should broaden the definition of “media practitioner” so that it is clear whether it wants to cover citizen journalists, camera persons or any other newsroom staffers who are not necessarily journalists.

Douglas Machongonye, who claimed to be a political analyst suggested that journalists must be given stiff prison sentences if they publish defamatory statements. But his suggestions were quashed by different media practitioners, who said one of the main reasons why media laws were being aligned to the Constitution was to ensure that journalism is decriminalised.

Media lawyer Chris Mhike said: “Bills are supposed to ensure media reforms and higher standards in reforming media policy. Calling for stiffer penalties on journalists is wrong and we cannot have such laws in a democracy as they are draconian. This is the 21st Century and not the 16th Century and if we criminalise journalism, people will be thrown into prison for minor crimes. The ZMC is not a law enforcement agency; it ought to be there to promote media freedom.”

He said section 9 of the Bill copies from the Commission of Inquiry Act and has draconian implications which give power to the ZMC to prohibit a person from participating in an inquiry.

“Empowering the Commission to prohibit a particular person from participating in an inquiry is not in line with democratic practices,” Mhike said.

Media Alliance of Zimbabwe programmes manager Nigel Nyamutumbu said the Bill should reflect the issue of co-regulation of the media in order to avoid the mistakes made in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Media Institute of Southern Africa Zimbabwe legal expert Kuda Hove said the powers to ensure the rights of access to information were enjoyed should be vested within the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and not the ZMC because access to information also included non-media information.

AB Communications chief executive Susan Makore said the gender aspect must be included in the leadership of ZMC.

She said the Bill must clearly state the objectives of the Media Development Fund — whether it will bail out struggling media houses, improve media training standards or establish community initiatives.

Different journalists also quashed the involvement of the police in commissions of inquiry saying this would be tantamount to criminalising journalism.

By Harriet Chikandiwa

A 27-YEAR-OLD police officer appeared before a Harare magistrate on Thursday facing charges of malicious damage to property and theft of US$220.

Fidelis Katsande appeared before Harare magistrate Francis Mapfumo, who remanded him out of custody to November 5.

It is alleged that on June 19 this year, the complainant, Shupikai Round (35), a commuter omnibus operator, was driving along Mbuya Nehanda Street when he came across two Harare City Council trucks carrying Zimbabwe Republic Police officers and municipal cops pursuing vendors.

Katsande and his three alleged accomplices disembarked from one of the trucks and allegedly blocked the complainant’s commuter omnibus before smashing the kombi’s passenger window to force him to stop.

It’s the State case that Round continued driving his vehicle and Katsande and his accomplice continued to smash the vehicle’s side windows, leading to the damage on six side windows and the rear screen.

Round was taken into police custody and Katsande allegedly extorted $400 from him.

After Round was released from custody, he discovered that his phone was missing.

He alleged that Katsande and his accomplice took his cell phone when they were effecting his arrest.

When Round was making a follow-up of his vehicle at VID Belvedere depot, he also discovered that Katsande and his accomplice had allegedly taken US$220 and a jacket, leading him to file a police report.

Delight Mauto represented the State.

BY NHAU MANGIRAZI

A KAROI man died on Tuesday afternoon after throwing himself in front of a moving haulage truck, while a soldier hung himself after discovering that his wife was having an affair.

The man, only identified as Breaker, threw himself in front of an oncoming vehicle along the farming town’s Chirundu-Harare Highway after complaining that he was failing to cope with economic hardships.

“The driver tried to avoid him and applied brakes, but it was too late as the deceased threw himself into the path of the moving truck,” a witness Wellington Matenga said.

Another witness said the deceased had previously complained that he was undergoing mental torture due to the harsh economic climate.

Said Ratidzai Mubaya: “He used to say it and we thought it was a joke.”

The deceased was reportedly married and had three children.

‘‘He was always complaining that life was becoming tough daily as he was not getting enough money for his family,” another town dweller Thomas Kadura also said.

His body was taken to Karoi District Hospital for a post-mortem.

Meanwhile, a 27-year-old soldier based at Inkomo Barracks committed suicide after allegedly coming across some text messages exposing an affair by his wife.

Paul Maguramhinga hanged himself on Saturday last week.

According to neighbours, the deceased dumped his first wife and moved in with his second wife in Karoi’s Chiedza high-density suburb.

The second wife reportedly moved out of the family house and he suspected she was in an adulterous relationship.

“They had an altercation after he found text messages on his second wife’s phone that showed that she was having an affair with another man,” a neighbour who refused to be named said.
The soldier then hanged himself after the couple failed to resolve the issue.

Mashonaland West acting police spokesperson Inspector Ian Kohwera confirmed the incident.