Air Force committed to gender equality

Columbus Mabika-Herald Reporter

The Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) has reiterated the importance of putting in place strategies that promote gender equality and was fully endorsing the role of women’s empowerment and gender equality as a key driver of the process of sustainable development of the country.  At the recruit course pass-out parade at Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo Barracks in Chegutu yesterday, a third of the recruits were women.

Speaking on the sidelines Commander AFZ Air Marshal Elson Moyo said: “As an organisation, we have made some strides in achieving gender equality as witnessed in this graduation. Zimbabwe has a robust legal and institutional framework which promotes gender equality and women empowerment. The air force in its rank and file has over the years empowered women with some strategic positions now being given to female commanders,” he said.

“The strategies contained in the policy do not only unlock the potential of women but take deliberate efforts to address the gender disparities across the organisation. Although we have not yet the met the 50 percent gender equality, we are happy that at least we have achieved above 30 percent in empowering women.” Air Marshal Moyo highlighted the importance of economically empowering women as a sustainable way to achieve gender equality across all sectors.

“The equality can be achieved through various empowerment programmes that Government and partners provide, such as access to finance and markets, capacity building, provision of technology and workspace, amongst others,” he said.

The women who graduated said the AFZ had made significant progress in recognising the efforts made by women to uplift their lives but called for more to be done.

 Turning to disaster management, Air Marshal Moyo said the AFZ had widened its training to ensure its work force skills were compatible with national disaster management. The increase in natural disasters in contemporary times due to climate change has seen the army and air force being called upon more frequently to use their special skills and equipment to provide relief as tropical cyclones and other related disasters have become more common and with worse intensity.  ‘‘The role of the military in disaster management was given more prominence due to the lessons experienced during Operation Cyclone Idai conducted in Chimanimani in March 2019. We upgraded our training to sharpen the knowledge and skills of troops and commanders in preparation for such eventualities noting that some parts of Zimbabwe are prone to disasters,” he said.

On discipline, he said the AFZ will not hesitate to bring to book all rouge elements.

“In the past few months we have experienced some cases of indiscipline. The cases that have been reported include abuse of service weapons to commit armed robberies and other crimes, incidents of members involved in illegal mining or chikorokoza and general disregard for military rules and regulations. In this regard we will not hesitate to sentence,” he said.