Why should I have 10 children when they cannot benefit from Zimbabwe’s resources- Senator asks?

Now, what we are saying in this House is that what legacy are we leaving for our children?  Are we doing enough to give them confidence to say yes, we will be able to continue living the way they feel they have to live.  We are churning 35 000 students every year and those children have no jobs. So, these are the issue we need to deal with and there is nothing impossible to turn around the economy of this country when you look at the natural resources we have and the human resources we have.  So, that is development that is for sure and it is good to keep it in the back of the mind of every Zimbabwean vachiri kuibara haikona isu takapedza that it is important to have more children.  There is nothing wrong but we need to give them an assurance that these children will survive in that environment.

The issue of support – giving incentives to families, this is happening in the countries where economies are doing well. We also hope that when we boost our economy, we will then be able to incentivise our younger children to have more children.  So, this is very good and is very realistic. All the arguments which you have put upfront are very real but we need to look at our infrastructure to make sure that our children will live a decent life.  I thank you.

HON. SEN. MAKONE: Thank you Mr. President.  I want to thank Hon. Sen. Musaka for moving this motion and Hon. Sen. Murwira for seconding the motion.  However, I want to differ from them, in the sense that I do not know of any law in Zimbabwe that says you must have few children.  People are making a decision not to have children. Why are they making those decisions?  Decision are based on what you aspire as parents for your children. If you aspire for them to go to Oxford, there is nothing wrong with that but the schools fees at Oxford is at £34 000 per year.  This is different from having your children going to University of Zimbabwe where the annual fees is US$1 400 a year.  So you do things that suit your life style.

I honestly do not believe that we should be debating this motion here because there is no – [AN HON. SENATOR: Inaudible interjections.] – you should make a choice of what you want to do.  There is no law in Zimbabwe that says you shall have two children and no more, unlike China where you could not have more than one child.  There it was legislated.  When it is legislated, then I see that there is something wrong with it but to legislate for people who are not legislated, I do not see the point.  Those that want to have none can have none.  It is an open field.  Nobody tells you what to do with your life.  It is an open cheque; you decide as a couple in your bedroom what you want to do.  You cannot have the Parliament of Zimbabwe coming to tell you what to do there, whether to have children or not have children, it is really none of our business.  The problem only happens if this Government starts to legislate, I am against legislation of numbers and you must remember that there are those people that have got different reasons for not having children.  People do not always have children because they cannot have them but it is because of probably medical conditions which they do not want to take risks for.  So, if people decide that I have done two and if I have a third one I might die, why force them to have children.  Let people have the children that they want, children that they can afford, children that are not legislated for – that is freedom.  But to start telling people what to do in their bedrooms, I really think that we have gone over the top.  I thank you

HON. SEN. D.T KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. President for allowing me to debate.  This debate is excellent and I thank those who have brought this motion into Parliament so that we can think and be together in all what we do.

In my family, my grandmother had twelve, my mother had nine, my sister had twelve, and my brother had twelve children because at that time, that was possible.  You could put them in the field and they would help you in the field.  We never suffered from hunger.  Issues at the present moment – we were taken to school by working hard.  Now, we were moved to the areas where there is no water.  If you look at Nigeria or Egypt where there is dense population, there is plenty of water.  Unless this country develops the availability of water, children are not going to have many children because it means before the children go to school, they have to walk 15 km to go and look for water.

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