News / National
Mugabe pleads for women to have more babies
16 Aug 2012 at 06:32hrs | Views
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe says Zimbabwe's women must have more babies as he launched the country's 2012 population census.
"We want more children. Give us more children you women. Muri kurambirei mimba? Makapihwirwei? Aiwa aiwa musanyime (Why are you refusing to get pregnant? Why were you given bellies? No, no, don't refuse)," President Mugabe said at a hotel in Harare, where he joined Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in launching the census.
He added: "The census results of 2002 were a disappointment to me the numbers were down, miserably down. Well, they have not increased very much. The country's population has been decimated by the pandemic we all know â€" HIV and Aids. We still need to establish whether that pandemic still has that same effect of decimating our population or have we managed at least to control it in such a way that even though it still affects us, we managed to beat our death rate."
According to the 2002 count, Zimbabwe's population was 11.6 million, up 1.2 million from a decade earlier. But the growth rate slowed as AIDS erupted across the region.
After peaking at 3.98 percent in 1983, the annual population growth rate began a steady slide, bottoming out in 2007, when the population is thought to have shrunk by 0.38 percent, according to World Bank data.
Though about 13 percent of the population is HIV positive, Zimbabwe has emerged as something of an AIDS success, with new HIV infections down 50 percent between 1997 and 2007, a study last year found.
Officials are encouraging male circumcision because some research has shown the procedure can reduce HIV transmission rates. Zimbabwe has also seen an exodus of people fleeing political and economic turmoil over the last decade, with some estimates suggesting three million people have left.
The census will cost about $40 million, with donors chipping in $12.6 million, the finance ministry said.
"We want more children. Give us more children you women. Muri kurambirei mimba? Makapihwirwei? Aiwa aiwa musanyime (Why are you refusing to get pregnant? Why were you given bellies? No, no, don't refuse)," President Mugabe said at a hotel in Harare, where he joined Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in launching the census.
He added: "The census results of 2002 were a disappointment to me the numbers were down, miserably down. Well, they have not increased very much. The country's population has been decimated by the pandemic we all know â€" HIV and Aids. We still need to establish whether that pandemic still has that same effect of decimating our population or have we managed at least to control it in such a way that even though it still affects us, we managed to beat our death rate."
According to the 2002 count, Zimbabwe's population was 11.6 million, up 1.2 million from a decade earlier. But the growth rate slowed as AIDS erupted across the region.
Though about 13 percent of the population is HIV positive, Zimbabwe has emerged as something of an AIDS success, with new HIV infections down 50 percent between 1997 and 2007, a study last year found.
Officials are encouraging male circumcision because some research has shown the procedure can reduce HIV transmission rates. Zimbabwe has also seen an exodus of people fleeing political and economic turmoil over the last decade, with some estimates suggesting three million people have left.
The census will cost about $40 million, with donors chipping in $12.6 million, the finance ministry said.
Source - online
