Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has suggested rapists be castrated as the country introduces stiffer penalties for the crime.
President Mugabe told lawmakers from his Zanu PF party after officially opening parliament on Tuesday that his government must introduce punitive and deterrent penalties for rape.
“Men be aware. We are going to make it very, very tough for you,” he said. "No molestation of youngsters, not molestation of women,”
The 89 year-old leader said it was time to consider tougher sentences especially for child rapists.
“We are going to increase sentences. In the past, there was death sentence for rape but these days those campaigning for human rights say it is inhuman, it dehumanises a person. “But these are people who dehumanise others. If you kill someone they say punishment of that nature is dehumanising, for a person who killed someone?” President Mugabe said.
According to police, more than 1,600 children were reportedly raped in the first half of this year in Zimbabwe.
The main culprits were relatives, mostly advised by traditional healers that having sex with minors can cure HIV/Aids.
“Rape cases have increased by five per cent as we recorded a total of 2,440 in the first half of the year compared to 2,326 recorded during the same period last year,” police spokesperson Superintendent Blessmore Chishaka told local media early this month.
“We are concerned with this increase in rape cases because most of the cases involved girls below the age of 16 years.”
He said the number of women who were raped during the first half of the year had gone up to 812 from 773 the same period last year.
247naijagossip
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