The ManicaPost
Wimbainashe Zhakata Post Correspondent
EIGHTY-SEVEN percent of female employees working within organisations in Mutare urban are being sexually harassed at work places, statistics from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development has revealed.
The Ministry last month conducted a survey on sexual harassment at workplaces in Mutare urban during the commemorations of 16 days of activism against gender based violence(GBV) running under the theme ‘Creating Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace’.
Manicaland provincial administrative officer, Mr Confidence Mungayi said 18 organisations participated during the survey with six of them being public institutions.
“During our survey 120 employees responded to questionnaires, 12 employers were interviewed and five service providers gave their input,” he said.
“A total of 18 organisations participated. Six of them were from the public institutions and seven came from private organisations while five from service provider institutions. The outcome of our survey showed that 87.5 percent of the participants felt that women are affected the most while five percent indicates that men were also affected. However, three percent felt both men and women are affected the most and 5.8 percent did not respond,” said Mr Mungayi.
Mr Mungayi said people with disabilities were the most harassed at workplaces with most women failing to defend themselves from such harassment.
He said men were not spared although the level is very low.
“This indicates that women seem to remain vulnerable. Sexual harassment of men was said to be occurring even though the percentage is low. About a third of the respondents felt that people with disability are more prone to sexual harassment at the work places,” he said.
Mr Mungayi said according to statics from their survey, 62 percent of organisations in Mutare urban were not aware of legal frameworks that governs gender issues.
He said 37.8 percent claimed to know about legal frameworks.
“ The survey outcome shows that the most commonly cited impact of sexual harassment at work was lack of concentration, depression, lack of interest in job and isolating oneself from work colleagues,” he said.
