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Tendai Rupapa, Harare Bureau

FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has said she is ready to rope in wives of traditional leaders in social programmes that benefit communities.

Her remarks follow a request by traditional leaders for the First Lady to consider roping their wives as part of efforts to empower the girl child and reach out to marginalised communities.

Amai Mnangagwa accepted the request.

She said the inclusion of traditional leaders’ wives would enable her to fulfil her vision of reaching out to the vulnerable community.

The First Lady yesterday met stakeholders at Zimbabwe House in Harare where they discussed ways to rope in the traditional leaders’ wives in programmes that develop communities.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministries of Primary and Secondary Education; Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs; Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development; Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage; Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and the Zimbabwe Republic Police.

Representatives of UN Women, Econet, Netone and She Care also attended the event

“I received a request from the Chief’s conference meeting that took place in November last year to rope in chief’s wives in my programmes and work with them,” said the First Lady. “I accepted this gesture and I do welcome the request to work with their wives. I can successfully do so if I work with all of you here.

“The purpose of this meeting is to brainstorm on practical and feasible ways to rope in chief’s wives in my line of work and make use of them to pursue development as they complement the roles of our chiefs. The institution of the traditional leadership has always been central to the governance of communities in Zimbabwe.”

Amai Mnangagwa said she was looking forward to working with the chief’s wives and all stakeholders for the benefit of the communities.

“My work builds into and embraces the development goals of social and economic empowerment focusing on the most vulnerable people in our country,” she said.

“I am doing this through my office and the Angel of Hope Foundation.

“With the chief’s wives, I would like to work with them on social cohesion, ending girl child marriages, rape cases, gender based violence, promotion of cleanliness, child abuse, having viable community guidance in promoting food security and ending prostitution.

“I am involved in a number of community outreach programmes which the chief’s wives can partner for the betterment of our communities. The wives of chiefs, by virtue of being spouses to them, they are able to influence the behaviour of their communities. They have the potential to do good for their communities.”

Amai Mnangagwa said involvement of the chief’s wives would be guided by the responsibilities assigned to the chiefs as enshrined in the Constitution.

“The constitution requires traditional leaders in their areas of jurisdiction to promote and uphold cultural values of their communities and in particular to promote sound family values, to preserve culture, history, tradition and heritage of their communities,” she said.

“It also requires them to facilitate development in accordance to the act of Parliament, to protect the environment and to resolve disputes among other duties.”

President of the Chiefs Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira, thanked the First Lady for accepting their request.

“It has always been our wish for several years to see our spouses actively involved and making a contribution to our country,” he said.

“They have always been working behind the scenes and were not officially recognised.