PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has said the government must introduce stiffer penalties for rape and suggested castration for child rapists, insisting tougher action was needed to curb what he described as a rampant problem.
Speaking after the official opening of Parliament on Tuesday Mugabe expressed concern over increasing cases of adults abusing minors, in some cases supposedly after being advised by traditional healers that this would help cure illnesses or bring wealth.
�Vanababa tochenjera. We are going to make it very, very tough for you,� he said.
�Vaye movayambira, madzishe, vanobata twana tudiki, kana zvichinzi ndizvo zvinopedza hurwere, kana zvichinzi zvinopa mhanza here, kana upfumi, movaudza vazvikande pasi. No molestation of youngsters, no molestation of women.�
Mugabe said it was time to consider tougher sentences adding he was open to the introduction of castration for rapists.
�We are going to increase masentences,� he said.
�In the past there was death for rape, zvino vemahuman rights vanoramba hanzi �death haa no, it�s inhuman, it dehumanises a person,� iye ari munhu atoita dehumanise vamwe.
�Kana wauraya munhu zvonzi a-ah, no, punishment of that nature is dehumanising, munhu akauraya mumwe? Ndipo pandinorambawo ipapa. Kungoti chete, if it comes in another way yekuti uyu akaparadza ropa toparadza rimwe here futi, so we have two people dying.
�An eye for an eye. Not in that way, ndaingoda for marapists kuti tisevenzise Burdizzo and the person remains alive. But that which makes him rape, must go. Kuna varume varikuramba ipapa.�
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