Source: The Zimbabwean
Women must learn to put their money where their mouth is and not just talk continuously at major international conferences, says Dr Utete-Masango, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development.
Departing from the conference prepared programme at the three-day International Conference on Women's Economic and Political Empowerment and Peace Building, Utete-Masango, Master of Ceremonies at the conference, said : "We (women) are never short of words. This is at every conference where we always talk, talk, talk. We must come up with clear guidelines after this international conference.

"There must be clear empowerment and political recommendations after this. How do we also get to a high level. A colonel, for example, is not the highest position in the Zimbabwe National Army for example and this applies not only to Zimbabwe but to the whole world."
She was referring to Colonel Mutasa from the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) who had received a standing ovation after her lengthy speech where she blasted corrupt governments saying Zimbabwe was "full of blood and this is worrying".

"We need divine intervention for peace to prevail," said Mutasa, dressed in her army uniform plus black beret.

"Zimbabwe has lots of blood. We need the hand of God because there is a lot of blood in the country."
She said innocent civilians were sometimes being beaten up by rogue forces which she, however, did not mention except shift blame to the regime of the late former Prime Minister, Ian Douglas Smith.

In an interview Ruth Labode, who was this week re-elected President of the Matabeleland Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), told The Zimbabwean that she was impressed by the three-day conference, which would pave the way for women both politically and economically if they took the issues discussed seriously.

"I am very happy because there are so many influential individuals present here.” Labode said she hoped the women would put into practice what they had learnt during the three-day event.

Superintendant Banda from the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) said women must stop pricing their products too high.
This, she pointed out, tended to "push some women out of business".
"We must stop pricing ourselves out of the market," Banda said.
"When someone gets into tomatoes we must not all then also get into tomato production just because the woman is making money. We must try to diversify."

A senior official from the Ministry of Science and Technology said women should become versatile and "change friendly".
"We must also follow international trends such as Climate Change and target our businesses to follow these trends," she said.
"We must prepare ourselves for the 'Green Economy' which is changing all the time."

• Zimbabwe