Rejoice Timire (7 April 1959 – 11 August 2021) was a Zimbabwean disability activist and politician who served in the

Senate of Zimbabwe The Senate of Zimbabwe is the upper of the two chambers in Zimbabwe's Parliament. It existed from independence in 1980 until 1989, and was re-introduced in November 2005. The other chamber of Parliament is the National Assembly. In its current ...

from 2018 until her death in 2021, representing a specially allotted constituency for people with disabilities. A longtime advocate for disability rights, she played a key role in the addition of an official disability policy into the

Constitution of Zimbabwe A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princi ...

Biography

Rejoice Timire was born on 7 April 1959 in the village of Musume in the

Mberengwa District Mberengwa is a district in Midlands province in Zimbabwe. The district is now divided into sub-districts: Mberengwa North, East, West and South. It is bounded by Gwanda in Mberengwa west, and by Zvishavane in its northern zone, to the south it s ...

, Zimbabwe. She attended the Matedzi Primary School and Musume Secondary School. She studied business in university, and became a businesswoman by the mid-1990s. In 1998, Timire was in an accident in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

, South Africa, resulting in a severe

spinal injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

and requiring her to use a wheelchair. Following her accident, she became a prominent advocate for disabled people, particularly disabled women, in Zimbabwe. She became a member of the Disabled Women's Support Organisation in 2003, and became the organization's executive director in the 2010s. She was also a member of the board of directors of the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe and the Disability Board. In August 2018, Timire was elected to the

to represent people with disabilities, a specially allotted constituency in which the one male and one female senator are elected by an electoral college open to delegates from registered disabilities organizations. She sat as a member of the ruling

ZANU–PF The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organisation which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years under Robert Mugabe, first as prime ministe ...

party. Prior to becoming a senator, she was also a consultant for a joint initiative by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

regarding

gender-based violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence includes any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification. Types of gender-related violence include: * Violence against women (sometimes referred to simply a ...

targeting women with disabilities in Zimbabwe. Through her position as a senator, Timire partnered with the

United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the convention are required to promote ...

and other disability rights organizations to draft an official disability policy for Zimbabwe. This process was intended to update the outdated Disabled Persons Act of 1992 and tie it to the

. The National Disability Policy was officially launched by President

Emmerson Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (, US: (); born 15 September 1942) is a Zimbabwean politician who has served as President of Zimbabwe since 24 November 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former President Robert Mugabe, he held a se ...

in June 2021. Timire also advocated for better access to abortion, citing increasing deaths from unofficial back-alley abortions, as well as increased mental health resources for disabled people during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. In May 2021, she voted in favor of a constitutional amendment which expanded the powers of President Mnangagwa. Timire died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

at the Mbuya Dorcas Hospital in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its ...

on 11 August 2021, aged 62. She is buried in Harare's Glenforest Cemetery. Her death was eulogized by many prominent disability activists, including the heads of the National Disability Board and the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust, as well as fellow disabled senator

Watson Khupe Watson Khupe (1962/1963 – 17 July 2022) was a Zimbabwean disability activist and politician who served in the Senate of Zimbabwe from 2018 to 2022 as a member of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front. Khupe represented a sp ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timire, Rejoice 1959 births 2021 deaths People from Midlands Province Politicians from Harare Members of the 9th Parliament of Zimbabwe 21st-century Zimbabwean women politicians ZANU–PF politicians Members of the Senate of Zimbabwe Zimbabwean disability rights activists Activists with disabilities Politicians with disabilities Zimbabwean people with disabilities Zimbabwean women activists Zimbabwean feminists Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe