News

Obama honours brave Zimbabwean women

November 24, 2009 Edition 2

WASHINGTON: After the beatings by President Robert Mugabe's policemen, the overcrowded, lice-ridden jail cells, the degradation of nightly strip-searches, Jenni Williams and Magondonga Mahlangu still cling to hope for Zimbabwe.

They talk of hope that the devastated country still may be able to write a home-grown constitution, which would lead to real elections and recovery from the depths that a decade of increasingly malign misrule has dug.

The women were honoured at a White House ceremony in which they received the 2009 Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award from US President Barack Obama yesterday.

They are co-founders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, whose acronym Woza forms an Ndbele word that means "come forward".

Behind Williams and Mahlangu about 70 000 Zimbabweans have signed on to do that. Like the founders, many have been beaten and worse. - Sapa-AP