GL mourns the passing of Mme Chigedze Chinyepi
Johannesburg, 26 May: Gender Links (GL) learned with deep shock and sadness of the passing away of its Botswana Office and SADC Liaison Director Chigedze Chinyepi on 26 May 2024. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and to the thousands, especially women, whose lives she touched. Mme Chigedze, as she was fondly known, leaves behind her giant footprints in the women’s movement in her home country Botswana, the 16 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Africa more broadly.
“Gender Links was always at the top of Mme Chigedze's agenda,” said GL Chair Emily Brown. “She worked really hard to find the right people to serve on the GL Botswana Board. I will miss her courage and fortitude.”
Recalling that she had been in conversation with Mme Chigedze just last week, Director of the GL Regional Hub Debrah Mukuku said although Mme Chigedze was recovering from an operation this terrible eventuality had never been anticipated. “As GL staff we are in total shock,” she said. “Mme Chidegze joins our gallery of sheroes. We will designate our newest conference room the Mme Chigedze Seminar Room. Her memory, passion and power will forever be with us.”
“Mme Chigedze is synonymous with the struggle for gender equality in SADC,” added GL founder and long-time colleague Colleen Lowe Morna. “Mme Chigedze worked 24/7/365 for change. She embraced diversity; championing the rights of all, women, girls, LGBTIQ persons; indigenous women; those living with disability, sex workers. The list is endless. Mme Chigedze was not afraid to speak truth to power, campaign wherever her voice was needed. We have been robbed of a women and human rights defender. May we honour her by continuing the struggle for a better life for all.”
[video width="848" height="480" mp4="https://genderlinks.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Chigedze-Chinyepi-Video.mp4"][/video]Chigedze Virginia Chinyepi was a gender activist and entrepreneurial consultant with more than three decades of experience, working in Civil Society and Private Sector Organisations in Botswana and in Southern Africa, building capacity for women empowerment, lobbying for policy change and economic empowerment of women.
As a Board Member of the Botswana Council of NGOs, BOCONGO, Mme Chigedze was Chairperson of Gender and Human Rights Thematic Group that represented Botswana in the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance, that campaigned for this sub-regional instrument adopted by Heads of State in 2008. The Protocol brings together all continental and regional commitments to gender equality, and enhances these with a results based reporting framework. When Botswana (together with Mauritius) failed to sign the Protocol arguing that it was too prescriptive, Mme Chigedze led a national campaign for her government to sign. This culminated in Botswana joining other SADC member states in signing the revised SADC Gender Protocol in May, 2017.
Mme Chigedze’s legendary lobbying skills extended to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol. that Botswana ratified on 1 December 2023.
“We cannot speak about the Alliance without mentioning Mme Chigedze,” said Emma Kaliya, Executive Director of the Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre, and Chair of the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance. “She will forever be missed by all of us. May her soul rest in peace.”
From 2021 until her untimely passing, Mme Chigedze led GL’s work in Botswana as part of the International Idea consortium on Enhancing the Inclusion of Women in Political Participation in Africa. She organised women’s academies across political parties in all the regions of Botswana, preparing over 100 women for political participation at national and local level in the coming October elections. The programme includes mentorship of young women political aspirants.
Together, the women in this programme mounted the Molaomotheo- Buang Bomme! (The Constitution- Women Speak Out) campaign, making the case for a review of Botswana’s 1967 independence Constitution to address fundamental gender concerns. These include contradictory provisions on customary law; and advocating for an electoral system that is more favourable to women’s political participation. The submission made by women across political parties also makes the case for diversity and inclusion to be more explicitly spelled out in the Constitution. The Commission set up to investigate the need for a review (the Dibotelo Commission) has submitted its report and recommendations which are the subject of further lobbying and advocacy by the women’s movement.
Among her many footprints, Mme Chigedze was also the founder and chairperson of African Women Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), Botswana Chapter. A seasoned businesswoman, she chaired the Business Botswana Sector Level Committee for the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, which she represents at the High Level Consultative Committee, chaired by the President of Botswana. She was appointed by the Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs to serve as a member of the Botswana National Gender Commission from 2016 to 2019. Mme Chigedze served as a member of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) of the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) Small Grant Program (SGP) and as a Gender focal person of the Southern African Partnerships for the Prevention of Conflict (SAPPC) which is a network of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC).
Among her several global engagements, Mme Chigedze presented Shadow reports on Botswana on the Convention of All forms of Discrimination Against Women and girls (CEDAW) to the United Nations CEDAW Committee in Geneva (2010 and 2019), and participated in regional (Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe) Social Protection Policy Brief development and presented to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63 – March 2019).
Mme Chigedze will be sorely missed by the women’s movement that she served so tirelessly.
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