Kariba Municipality Institutional Profile

“Kariba Municipality acknowledges gender equality as an essential part of good local governance where women and men have equal access to decision making, equal access to services and equal treatment in delivery of these services.”
When you want a dose of nature, then Kariba is the place to be. Seeing an elephant right in the middle of the road is common. The legend of the Nyami-nyami still lives in this part of the nation. Actually, a sighting of this supernatural creature was made not very long ago.

Kariba became a Centre of Excellence for Gender in Local Government in 2010. The Council’s gender score has risen slightly from 46% to 50.5% During Gender Link’s verification the council only managed to do the scorecard, but this was accompanied by a file of evidence. Kariba is well known as the “home of campaigns”. Regularly, they hold campaigns to raise awareness on Gender Based Violence (GBV), HIV/AIDS and most recently an anti-littering campaign.

The Kariba Municipality has a gender policy that has been adopted by council. It clearly denotes that “The mayor, councillors and staff of the Municipality of Kariba are responsible for driving gender mainstreaming activities.” Connecting closely to this policy is the institutionalized HIV & AIDS policy, which the council formulated. It clearly stipulates that it is a non-discriminatory policy that seeks to treat people with HIV/AIDS in the workplace “as others who may have a life threatening illness such as cancer and should be afforded sick and compassionate leave just like any employee.” The council has a budget for gender, women and youth activities, specifically for hosting a campaign during the 16 Days of activism to the tune of $950.00.

Kariba has a staff of 202 employees, 25% (51) of whom are women. There is only one woman who works in the water section. There are no women in senior, managerial decision making posts in the council. Despite this, council is an equal opportunity employer, as their job advertisements are encouraging women to apply for jobs previously considered men’s jobs. “The only problem we have is that women shy away from applying for these influential decision making posts”, said Natsai Mudzudza, as she explained the low numbers of women in decision making positions in the council.

The council sadly has no housing policy, but is making inroads in trying to address some inequalities in the housing section. In the last housing allocations made in 2011, the council allocated 9 stands to women out of a total of 29 stands. However, as due process the council is encouraging joint ownership of properties. This is all in a bid to protect the interests of one or both spouses in regard to the sale of the land.

Like every council, their major focus is on ensuring efficient service delivery to residents. Of particular interest is the ability of the council to provide a steady supply of water. As such, the council has a water point committee; 4 of the 6 members are women. Their mandate is to report to the Housing Committee. The participation of women in council activities is evident. The Gender Champion, Tracey Ndoro is also is a member of the Women in Local Government Forum (WLGF) urban executive, which has been pro-active in the supporting women’s issues in council discussions.

Perhaps it is in the health sector that the council has managed to offer services most effectively. Well equipped with an HIV/AIDS policy which is institutionalized, some employees, like Natsai Mudzudza, have volunteered to become peer educators in a bid to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS within the institution. As such, it comes as no surprise that council provides a CD4 count machine at the council clinic which caters for the community. They are also encouraging men to go and get tested. Care work initiatives are being undertaken by Community Health workers who do home visits to those people living with HIV/AIDS. Council promotes male circumcision in their health department, with operations run by a medical doctor who is hired by council.

The town has a dynamic gender structure. An active, all stakeholder gender committee is in place with which the council interacts and works, especially when they are holding their campaigns and any gender related issues. This committee started as an action committee meant to curb the high levels of prostitution among teenagers and youths aided by influential business people in the town in 2010. The institutional gender committee consists of an equally balanced, 4 males and 4 females, who also double as peer educators. Kariba can definitely soar to greater heights. “The sky is the limit”.