Caroline Nyamayaro:

Women should be part of the solution to national development issues if the country is to quickly turnaround the current political and economic crisis, analysts said.

The analysts were speaking at the Citizen Manifesto’s Second National Convention held in Harare from Tuesday to Wednesday this week.

Presidential Advisory Council member and businessman Shingi Munyeza said the inclusion of youth and women should be at the center of governance in order to achieve a better Zimbabwe.

“We must put women at the centre of decision making because without them, we are dying,” said Munyeza.

Women in Politics Support Unit director Sakhile Sifelani Ngoma added that it was high time for Zimbabwe to engage women at the centre of governance, since they constitute a larger section of the national population.

A lawyer Brian Kagoro said Parliament was failing to perform its constitutional duties such as holding the Executive accountable and, therefore, the people should assert their rights and call for public officials to be accountable.

Kagoro said citizens should believe in themselves and there is no special group that has a right to determine the life we live.

“We are owners of this country not customers,” he said.

Harare Residents Trust founder and co-ordinator Precious Shumba said there was need to address the challenge of a corrupt governance system in the country.

He said councilors should be transparent and accountable on water crisis that Harare residents are experiencing.

Shumba added that government officials must desists from their habit of living luxurious lives while failing to attend to serious matters such as water pipe leakages, sewage and continuous power cuts that directly affect residents.