Introduction

1. Introduction Based on Research findings of ongoing Safe & Inclusive Cities Study Scoping done in Kadoma April 2013, Bulawayo August 2013 and Harare in September & October 2013

2. Findings on Security • Security of Livelihoods • Physical threats due to dilapidated infrastructure – lack of servicing and maintenance • Gender Violence from lack of services • Structural violence – by withholding adequate services and inadequate policing

3. Making ends Meet • Girls are forced into transactional sex and that comes with its own problems “Girls may wake up in the morning and there is no food to eat and someone offers them a little money for food, and clothing, she is then forced to sleep with that person even if under other circumstances she would not have agreed. People even resort to sleeping with men to get jobs. Some women here in Bulawayo even get to the extent of going to South Africa to prostitute and to steal…” • Criminalisation of sex work, violence from police – cases not being acted on “Police seem to ignore violence against sex workers on the basis that sex work is criminalized in Zimbabwe. The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, does not criminalize sex work. It criminalizes publicly soliciting another for purposes of prostitution which is difficult to prove. This does not warrant failure by police to protect sex workers from violence….”

4. Violence from clients & partners Women are place in a precarious position as they ultimately resort to commercial sex work or transactional sex to make ends meet. In most cases, the women are single mothers and have to fend not only for themselves, but for their children. One woman in Nketa, a sex worker with a nine year old daughter speaks about the risks and dangers she is faced with on a daily basis; “Some would take me from the bar in the night, use me the whole night and then in the morning before they pay, they will just say they are going to get a cigarette and then they do not come back until very late and we end up just leaving without being paid.” She said some will do it in a violent way, they can actually tell you that they will not pay for a vagina after they have finished despite the fact that they will have agreed on the terms and price before they start. Some will dump them in far off places. Some sex workers were attacked by their intimate partners once they found out that they were sex workers. • Urban agriculture

5. Infrastructure • State of buildings in the hostels In Mbare, in the Matapi and Shawasha hostels, one has to negotiate precarious stairways on a daily basis; “Pamela then took me to the next floor called floor “B”. As we were descending, I almost tripped because the stair I had stepped on was slippery. I then made a comment about how one could easily wake up with a disability when Pamela told me about how she had fallen sometime back. She told me that she could not properly walk for more than a month but she was happy that she had healed quickly. I then asked her how those who had disabilities managed to maneuver their way around the flats and she told me that their relatives had to carry them because there was no other way. She said: “Nzvimbo inoyi haina kuvakwa inezvirema mupfungwa.” Meaning this place was not built with people living with disabilities in mi

6. Recorded robberies and muggings directly linked to unmaintained spots in Kadoma In one of the interviews that I held with Mai V she said that they often heard screams especially since her house was right at the end of the street where the open space with tall grass and maize begun. She then gave an account of how during the day, she had seen a man in the open space playing with his penis. When I probed further she said that the man had been masturbating and she ran as fast as she could. She said the open space was very dangerous and that she now avoided walking in it alone.” “The police pointed out that bad foot paths were a subject of concern and pointed out the open space between Rimuka and the CBD as a famous hotspot for criminal activity. Most settings show that the area where the women are mugged or raped would have been dark, with poor or no lighting at all and the perpetrator would have been hiding in the tall grass or the maize field

7. Disabled and the elderly affected adversely by the bad infrastructure – perceptions of harm and lack of access for disabled some major service providers were completely inaccessible to some of my respondents due to the absence of ramps for example the Police Stations both in town and in Rimuka, the Social Welfare Department and the Magistrate court have staircases all over. The public toilets which are in the central business district have a ramp but however the toilets have not been functional for close to seven years and the responsible authorities are not seeing this as a matter which calls for urgent attention ` These conditions put disabled women at risk and they are rightfully fearful for their safety because of the potential harm that may befall them. This inability to access justice delivery would place them in a precarious position if they were to be attacked by assailants. The deaf and blind also impacted as there are no officials trained in sign language nor are there documents available in braille some cases of physical threats on the elderly by their charges and also exposure to danger due to the need to fend for their charges; An elderly woman in Kadoma narrated her ordeal when a young man attempted to rape her in the maizw fields;  • “he asked me how I thought my vagina was special and told me he was going to have sex with me. He pushed me to the ground but I grabbed his private parts and he let me go...I thought it was better for me to die that day than to be raped…”

8. Poor lighting curtails movement at night In Makokoba, one respondent said “There are no lights in the streets, the tower lights are not there anymore and it is not safe to walk anytime after dark” The same phenomenon was also evident in Rimuka, where women’s freedom of movement was curtailed after dark due to the unsafe conditions created by lack of lighting; “At 7 pm during summer time the women stopped walking after that time and as early as 5pm in winter. This was due to the longer days and short nights in summer and vice versa in relation to winter… Five women spoke vehemently about a notorious gang which terrorised the Chipazi Area. The gang mugged, robbed and at times raped the women. Inadequate street lighting proved a major risk for the women and in Old Ngezi the situation was a bit different.” • Long grass in certain sections In Ngezi The women all agreed that the tall grass along foot paths posed a serious security risk to them; a risk in the sense of muggings, rapes and robbery. In an interview with Mai W she said “Inini ndinototya kufamba ndega” meaning I am literally afraid to walk alone.

9. Gender Violence • Poor policing by the authorities • Women have lost confidence in the police, feel alienated by the procedures • “being a man, he will have means with which to bribe the Police and gain their favour I partook in two focus group discussions with women at St John’s Roman Catholic Church. These were some of their views. On Police procedure, the initial consensus amongst all the women was that the Police procedure was cumbersome to them. That the Police regard domestic violence as an issue that must be resolved at home because it is ultimately destined for withdrawal anyway. According to the women, this creates indifference in the Officers who will ultimately only put efforts in taking on the case when you bribe them. In some instances they go as far as openly soliciting for money from you as an incentive for them to investigate and offer you protection. Money is a determining factor especially in cases of domestic violence as compared to general violence against women. They said this is because general violence against women usually comes from men you are not related to and it is easier for you to report and still remain independent of the assailant’s position. They said such cases usually go through smoothly

10. Implications of poor policing “When one goes to report especially domestic violence cases one is told either to go back and talk about it or to go and get the perpetrator of the violence and bring him to room 17. This they do the moment you tell them that you are from Makokoba, how is one expected to bring someone who was beating you to the police, the moment you tell him that he is wanted by the police he will throw you out of the house and tell you to go to the police who you are busy sleeping with. And if you go back home to your parents because the houses are small and your parents will be struggling anywhere they just tell you to go back and the honest truth is we suffer as women and all this is caused by poverty. When you are beaten up it will be because you will have asked for money for food from your husband and he will not have the money so he gets angry ad beat you up. It’s a vicious circle for a poor woman.” • Violence from their partners related to service delivery • “ unonzwa uchinzi wangauripi, sei usina kubika? Zvoita kunge wanga uchitamba zuva rese iwe wanga wakamira muraini remvura” meaning, one’s husband will arrive home and question your whereabouts when they do not find food ready and make it seem as if you were playing yet you were standing in water queue the whole day.

11. Inadequate Service Delivery • Women get raped when they go into secluded areas for firewood The need to find alternative sources of heating and power and water have also exposed the women in all three cities to various forms of violence. Women have to venture into areas that are secluded in search of firewood where thieves, robbers and rapists have been known to prey on them. One of the researchers in Kadoma got this story from an 83 year old woman; “It was in June last year and electricity had gone. My grandchildren were busy with other chores. One of them had gone to look for water so I decided to go and fetch firewood from the plot where we usually plant our maize. I picked up a big log and placed it on top of my head and just when I was about to leave, my face was met with a heavy fist and I fell to ground. As I looked up from the ground I saw standing right before me a young man who had started unzipping his trousers. He started beating me up with his fists and the he tried to put my legs on his shoulders whilst unzipping the rest of his zipper. I fought him and eventually pulled his balls which led to him yelping in pain and raping me... I mean not raping me. She said that “ ndange ndakapfeka madhende akawanda mwanangu. Madhende ndo akandibatsira. Mwari ndiyewo akandibatsira nekuti ndakawana simba rinoshamisa.

12. meaning that, had it not been for the many rags she was wearing to keep herself warm, she would have been raped and that the Lord gave her strength to overcome. The perpetrator was eventually caught and was sentenced to 9 years in prison he had apparently raped three other elderly women who had also gone to fetch wood. The lack of electricity exposed Mrs. K and three other elderly women to violence in the form of rape • Violence at water fronts

13. Security Space and Morality • Communities live within communities • Girl children exposed • A lady interviewed in Nketa who is a sex worker and calls herself a ‘Pleasure Manager’ lives in a single room with her nine year old daughter. When she entertains clients at home during the day she sends the girl out to play outside. This means she goes outside without any supervision. When she is seeing a client at night, she waits for the child to fall asleep and carries on in the same room. The child is exposed to sexual intercourse at such a tender age and this may lead her to early experimentation with sex or even worse, predation from her mother’s clients. • A respondent at the Shawasha Hostels in Mbare also told of a 15 year old girl who was raped at the flats. She was raped by a tenant at the flats. • . She shares a 1 bedroomed flat with 4 men and her three children. Two of her children are girls and the researcher asked her if this didn’t pose a threat of sexual predation for the girl children and the following was her response;

14. “Ah, varisafe ava. Zvemarape tinozvinzwawo hedu asi haa ava vanhu havamboita chinhu kune vana vangu. Vanyarikani ka ava. Vatova ana sekuru. Mukavawona vanhu vacho..haa. Hameno, hauzivire hako munhu but ahh hapana zvavanomboita.” Meaning ah, they are safe. We do hear about incidents of rape but I do not think they are the kind of people to do anything like that. They are respectable people. They are now as good as their uncles. If you were to see them, oh? Anyway you never know what one is capable of but ah, nothing will ever happen. • Sexual predation due to overcrowding • Access to toilets and other facilities • On the subject of the living conditions and their effect on women and girls, one respondent in Kadoma, Mr. Antonio said the following; • “…It is highly demeaning for an elderly man of my age, to share the same space with my mature children. In fact, this is what makes them promiscuous because they hear and see their mother and father make love…” • Mr. A added that: • “…A single or double- roomed house is sometimes occupied by more than one family which is a recipe for sexual predation of the women and girls...” • Ms. M, a widow, shares a single room together with her two sons (aged 13 and 4 years) and two daughters (aged 2 and 15 years). She added the following;

15. “It is a big problem here. Some families are quite large so that parents sleep outside of their house on the verandah leaving the children to sleep inside the room. In that case, the children are exposed to many dangers including sexual promiscuity. It is really difficult. If a husband and a wife want to have sex from the room, they have to tell their children to go and play outside. But, quite often, children utilize such occasions to engage themselves in promiscuous activities…” • There is clear link between the overcrowded conditions and sexual violations on women and girls. This was confirmed by the Prosecutor in Kadoma who said; • “…there is a big [sic] relationship between the conditions of congestion in homes and the occurrence of sexual offences against women and girls. Girls sometimes are raped by step fathers…sexual offences are more prevalent in high density areas…”

16. Political Violence • Mainly in Mbare • Fear of reprisals

17. What has not been said • From Regional Magistrate at Rotten Row – Rape and Statutory Rape is rife in Mbare, particularly in the hostels. • A lot of the statutory rape cases are swept under the carpet due to families negotiating for a settlement