When MP for Bulawayo East, Thabitha Khumalo, suggested that prostitution be legalised, we assumed she wanted to ensure that women in that trade would get proper medical advice and would be protected from violence. We also assumed she was thinking of the high unemployment in the country and was eyeing this as a “viable” self-employment option. We thought she was looking at the business side of the trade — sick as it might be. But she did an about turn and changed her mind, and she is entitled to that right.
On a morning when we were recovering from yet some more bizarre advice from Chikomo Senator, Morgan Femai, Khumalo weighed in with a suggestion that because some men will cheat at some point, their wives must “strike an understanding” with their husbands’ mistresses. She believes that this will help the wives avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases. How she arrived at that warped and implausible decision only the devil knows!
Femai, who must know absolutely nothing about human rights, suggests to his fellow legislators that all women be compelled to shave their heads, barred from bathing, lose weight and dress shabbily so they do not tempt the “poor helpless men” who cannot resist attractive and clean women. Seriously? It is a lame and silly excuse Senator and you know it!
As if whatever he was smoking was not enough, he dives into a tub of cocaine and further suggests that women must be circumcised and that ways must be found to dry out most of the moisture in women’s private parts! Does he know female genital mutilation is a human rights abuse?
There is a scary lunatic express travelling between Harvest House (MDC-T offices) and Parliament and on board that train in Khumalo, Femai and their colleague, Matobo Senator, Sithembile Mlotshwa, who in her wisdom, thinks couples should be restricted to sex once a month and that prisoners should be given sex toys to quench their desires. She also suggests that men be injected with a drug that reduces their libido! Whatever they are smoking on that mad train is very dangerous.
Here is a country with more than 90% unemployment, a huge number of people living with HIV, more than a third of the population stalked by hunger, a struggling health sector and an education sector barely scrapping by and our esteemed politicians are obsessed with sex!
Femai, Khumalo and Mlotshwa can start a sexual therapy school and leave leading the people to those who understand that this country has serious problems that need attention yesterday. I can assure them they will get many clients but more importantly their bizarre ideas would be more appreciated in such a fitting setting.
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Prisoners sometimes go hungry, they have inadequate clothing and their living conditions are appalling, but all Mlotshwa is concerned about is that they are sexually deprived.
And it is Femai’s right to surround himself with shabby and unwashed women but he must remember that he is in Senate to change people’s lives for the better.
If Khumalo is prepared to share her husband, that is her right too but she should not encourage other women to smile while they are being subjected to abuse and the real risk of HIV infection.
It killed me when I read a Kenyan colleague on Twitter saying that every week he could count on some of Zimbabwe’s politicians to make him laugh. We would all roll around and laugh uncontrollably with him if this were not such a tragedy.
Voters deserve better
Political parties owe it to voters to ensure that they do not unleash madness on the electorate. Our votes should not be that cheap. The reason why some people argue that politicians should have a certain level of academic education under their belt is because people expect their legislators to have a good grasp of national issues.
Maybe in future we should demand that people who want to run for office must at least have a degree and show an ability to debate important national issues. We need people with a proper handle on logic.
Politicians who want to come into government on a democracy, good governance and human rights ticket must prove that they have a clear understanding of all three and that they actually do practice it in their own family settings.
By Grace Mutandwa
[email protected] Grace Mutandwa1@twitter
