Senator says Zimbabwe needs more people to be viable- family should have minimum of eight children

MOTION

PROMOTION OF POPULATION GROWTH IN ZIMBABWE

HON. SEN. MUSAKA: Thank you Madam President. I rise to move the motion standing in my name;

That this House:

CONCERNED with difficulties to attract effective investors to Zimbabwe for sustainable profitable investment due to Zimbabwe’s low population;

FURTHER CONCERNED that most non-governmental Organisations diligently promote birth control down wards instead of encouraging family planning for prolife that is population growth;

CURRENT world trend in population are to encourage large families so as to grow market for products;

NOW THEREFORE, this House resolves that the Zimbabwe Government should encourage large families as follows;

a)    Give incentives to families to have a minimum of eight children;

b)   NGOs and Organisation promoting birth control should now be requested to promote family growth.

HON. SEN. SHIRI: I second.

HON. SEN. MUSAKA: I thank you Madam President.  The issue here I am tabling before the august House is one on population. Zimbabwe’s population, not just population.  our population in Zimbabwe Madam President, is too low to make any meaningful contribution in terms of economic development. If you look at the population of Zimbabwe and compare even with those countries that are even five times smaller than Zimbabwe, take for example England, it is five times or four times smaller than Zimbabwe. It has got a population of 76 million or more and the dynamics of development is enormous. We have only about 14 million people and even that 14 million may actually be a political figure, we could be less than that.  The country is vast with many resources but empty. We have no people.  We should be serious about development.  The issue here is a very serious one.  Let us take development alone  – which investor would come to Zimbabwe to invest seriously  for 14 million people? Even that 14 million, we  will only have may be less than 200 000 people who are  an effective consumer of any product, seriously. Even ourselves on our own, the beef and maize we cannot even consume it.  We have to rely on exports. I will come on to that and show the functional weakness of that kind of a policy.  If the internal dynamics are not properly developed and the internal dynamics I am talking about here are human beings, the actual people, the resources which we do not have.   It is quite a serious one.

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