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SENATE HANSARD 26 October 2016 26-09
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 26th October, 2016
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF
THE SENATE
2016 PRE-BUDGET SEMINAR
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I have
to inform the Senate that the Annual Pre-Budget Seminar will be held at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Grounds from 2nd November, 2016 to 6th November, 2016. Departure from Harare will be on 2nd
November, 2016, returning on 6th November, 2016. The flight from Harare on 2nd November, 2016 will depart at 1830 hours, arriving in Bulawayo at 1915 hours. On 6th November, 2016, the flight will leave
Bulawayo at 0815 hours, arriving in Harare at 0900 hours.
Senators are reminded that only members from the following provinces will travel by air: Harare, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland.
INVITATION TO THE COMMEMORATION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL CHILD
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I also
wish to inform the House that all Senators are invited to the commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child and national launch of the ‘He for She’ campaign to be held on 27th October, 2016 at the National City Sports Centre. The programme starts at 0830 hours and His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe will be the Guest of Honour.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the
Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE (HON. DR. SEKERAMAYI):
I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 27th October, 2016.
MOTION
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION CHALLENGES
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on malnutrition among urban and rural communities.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. D.T. KHUMALO: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
HON. SEN. MARAVA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 27th October, 2016.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON GENDER
AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE STATUS OF CHILDREN’S HOMES
Third Order read: Adjourned debate on the First Report of the
Thematic Committee on Gender and Development on the Status of
Children’s Homes.
Question again proposed.
*HON. SEN. SHIRI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me the chance to make my contribution on this motion. I would like to thank
Hon. Senator Makore for introducing the motion. I am also grateful that Parliament gave us the chance to go on an outreach programme whereby we made investigations in these orphanages.
Some of the orphans are picked when they have been thrown away by their parents. During our visits, we discovered a lot of things which are going on in these homes. As far as we know, children are a gift from God. They do not select a parent who gives birth to them but they just come. We have realised that some of the children who are picked up from the streets will have been thrown away by their parents. The mothers would have been tormented because the fathers would have denied paternity and cannot take care of them.
When we got to the Matthew Rusike Children’s Home, we were very much impressed by what was going on and we realised that unlike what happens in other institutions whereby the inmates stay in a hall, they live in family units just like they do in normal homes with fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. The parents are also responsible for their upkeep and just like what we do in our homes, they train them to engage in domestic chores. We realise that some of these children in orphanages are often tormented by the way they stay in these homes whereby they stay in clusters but with the Mathew Rusike, it is really a home situation just like we have a kitchen, dining room and a bedroom. They also sit down as families just like what we do in the homes and they share the house chores. The families are small; some have three, four or five children. Whenever children had problems or something to share, they would sit down with their parents and talk about what they are facing.
We were very much impressed when the administrators of Mathew Rusike told us that one of their girls got married and had a white wedding. When we asked about the Shona culture of paying lobola, they said they do that at the home. The lobola was paid as a donation to the institution. It is very impressive to say that these children after leaving the home, they still come back. It means they have a good reflection of what they benefited from this home. We also discovered that in this home there were some disabled children and yet in normal homes, some parents reject these disabled children but in this home, they were part of these families; they were integrated.
Mr. President, we later visited the Chirinda orphanage in Chipinge.
We beg the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Services, Hon. Mupfumira to carry out investigations on the management and administration of the Chirinda home. We discovered that there was lack of supervision; there was shortage of food. People in Chirinda home have a chance to benefit from many well wishers and we also wish the Minister could take steps for supporting this home. The situation is so dire; there is no food, blankets and there is no care.
Mr. President, when we asked how the children were brought up, we were told that the children who leave Chirinda home, leave with a bitter mind. They are bitter people and they become bitter to the society because of the treatment which they receive. We know that we have many children raised even in the homes such as Jairos Jiri, some have this bitterness but bitterness emanates from the way they are brought up simply because some of these care givers are not trained in the upbringing of such institutions. We have donors who come and donate to these homes, some of the donations include even new clothes but the care givers would rather take the new items to their homes and replace them with old ones in their homes.
We realise that whosoever establish these homes had the poor children at heart and some of these founders have since passed on. We now have care givers who are coming not to help these youngsters but will be asking themselves of benefits derived from such homes. That is why they do not appreciate the situation of these children. We have realised that in such homes, there is need for a balance of male and female workers because they will take care of the needs of these youngsters. If it is a girl who has something to share, she would rather approach a lady care giver. If it is a boy, he will prefer to give responsibility to the male care giver. If you have children sharing a home when they are of different ages, that is what creates bitterness. There are five children who are nearly of the same age who cannot take care of themselves. They cannot make decisions and hence we are calling for the Department of Social Services to take intervention measures and assist these children.
We also visited some homes in Bulawayo and we were impressed because these children were living in a normal home situation where there is a father, mother and the siblings. These orphans do not have their own schools set aside for orphanages but they mix with other children within the neighbourhood, hence they have that stigma of being labelled children from orphanages and some of them are called vana chanhongwa.
We urge members of the Social Welfare to assist these children in acquiring birth certificates because whenever there are activities to be undertaken at those schools, the orphans cannot take part because they lack these documents such as birth certificates. We also found that there is a reformatory home in Kadoma which is meant to correct delinquency but we were told that these children are now running a very fruitful and profitable farming project. Their main problem is water. If they could have access to adequate water, they would produce enough for themselves and even feed others because they are at the prime of their age - between 18 and 20 years whereby they have enough energy to carry out some of these farming chores.
We also want these youngsters to be given other professions besides farming like computers, motor mechanics, dress making and all those professions which might be of some help in their future. We also wish if these children could be given a chance to partake in sports because they may be future sport people. Yes, we do agree that they are delinquents but they have been in a reformatory in order that they live a normal life in that place. We also wish that the community in which we find these homes could be part of the management of these homes. We were told that some of these children in these orphanages, when they attain the age of 18, they are discharged from these homes because the law of the country states that anybody who is 18 has reached the age of majority, hence should move out of the homes and create space for others. What we know is that these children come into these homes as infants and by the time they attain 18 they have not acquired any skill. What then happens is the care givers and the administrators in these homes are always reminding these inmates that they will soon be attaining 18 years of age and therefore should be prepared to be discharged from the homes. What we know is that these children were picked up from the streets or some other places and do not have a home which they can go back to, apart from these institutions.
Hence, when these children are discharged they go into the streets and become street people and these are the people who end up being abused because they have been put into the street no home, parents, father or guardian. As the law makers, may we please make some legislation whereby these children should be taken care of even after the age of 18 and only be released after they have acquired some special skills or received education for a living?
We also realised that as women, in Zimbabwe we have a higher population. Women are 52% of the population and we should spread this education, telling people not to throw away the newly born infants. It is not right, regardless of whether this orphan grows up to be a successful person or not, there is still that stigma behind him that I am somebody who was picked up from the street or from the toilet and I have no relative to relate to. We need as people in the neighborhood and as members of the legislative body to go to these orphanages and adopt them so that they live in a homely environment and have a feel of what really life has in future.
I am pleading with us Hon. Members let us visit these orphanages within our neighborhood so that we may correct the problems faced by these homes. Like what we discovered in these homes whereby some of the caregivers actually loot donations. We came to a place whereby we met some twins who were in Gweru. They ended up assaulting one of the caregivers. When we made investigations on what had happened, these children were bitter because of the ill treatment they were receiving in these homes.
We have noticed that most of these homes are run by NGOs such as the churches. We beg and plead with them to hold interviews with potential caregivers to check on their background and their characters - whether they are people who are able to take care of these orphans in these orphanages. This is because when they go without enough training or without the need for the care of these children, they bring up future people who are full of bitterness and carry grudges against society, that is why I am saying as the legislators, one of our roles is to make laws.
We should therefore enact some laws which are aimed at correcting the imbalances in these orphanages. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. MARAVA: Thank you Mr. President, for giving me an opportunity to make my contribution in this important motion which was introduced by Hon. Sen. Makore. This really is an emotional issue and we need to make contributions on the running of these homes.
Mr. President, we should be aware of the fact that the place of residence for a child creates the future for this child. Where the child sleeps is a lesson which is aimed at the future of that child. We have been told by the Hon. Members who visited these homes that some of these homes are poorly run. We even have an instance whereby members had to make a donation of the bananas which they were supposed to eat but because of the situation which was prevailing at that home, members had to donate the bananas.
We should know that when these Committees are moving around the country, they are reporters who take the news and the international world is aware of what is happening in these homes. It is quite a shame to our country, Zimbabwe. As Hon. Members of this august House we should tell the truth about what we discovered in these homes and we should not sweep these problems under the carpet. What we now need to do is to look for a solution to solve these problems. We need an answer, we need solutions to the problems faced by these homes and we need to really make a thorough inspection of these homes because we need to weed out all these problems.
When we look at these children’s homes, the majority of the homes which have this sorry and deplorable situation are in the rural areas. When the Committee visited some of these homes, they told us that they had a place where they had launch. I can guess that this was an orphanage in the urban area. What we need to do is what is called bringing balance. We need to look at places where we could start by giving assistance and using this balance system, the first priority should be given to the rural areas.
We need to apply the original answer, which is that orphans have been with us for a long time. We also know that widows have been with us since time immemorial. The sick have been in this world since time immemorial, but in our culture there was a response in assisting these people and it is the chiefs who assisted in these places. Chiefs were responsible for taking care of these orphans and widows. So what I am implying is that the traditional leaders should be involved in the running of these homes. This is not happening, that is why we now have more thieves, criminals and yet in the past we did not have these prisons because the chiefs had everything under their finger tips. Whenever anybody committed a crime, it was a criminal punishment and then they would have no problems because nobody wanted to be involved in committing these crimes. We also notice that these homes should be put under the chiefs such as Hon. Sen. Chief Rimbi or Chief Mapungwana.
However, the chief in that area is not aware of the going on in that home, so what I am advocating for is that this is a 100% traditional case and therefore, there should be the involvement of traditional leaders. Our biggest problem is that we are modernizing our culture at the expense of our living. My suggestion and solution to this problem is with us. You are saying the chiefs have the role of taking care of people in their areas through communal operations. The chief should take care of the widows, widowers, orphans, the disabled and the sick. Assistance to these people should come through the chiefs. We know we have some people who are afraid of giving the chiefs their responsibilities because they feel they will be in the background, yet when we are talking of development, we should not be afraid of losing our limelight while people will be benefiting.
Why should children in these orphanages suffer? I think we have a solution to this. We have visited these homes in Chirinda but we did not visit Chief Chirinda and we wonder what will be going on. We need to look deeply into this problem. If there is a committee running the orphanage home in that area, it should be reporting to the chief. The parents dumped most of the children at the homes and it is taboo. We need to look at the problems that we have and find proper solutions to them.
*HON. SEN. CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: Thank you Mr.
President. I would like to make my contribution regarding what is going on in these orphanages. I am so happy because I am making my contribution after I have heard contributions of members who have spoken before me. Let me say that they are echoing what is in my mind, Hon. Sen. Marava and Hon. Sen. Shiri. What they were saying is very true. We heard that when this Committee visited these homes, at one home they found that there was starvation. When the homes took in these children, the idea was for them to have a life and future but what has since happened is that the caregivers are now facing problems of resources to run these homes in a proper manner.
We also expect Government to come and assist in these homes through the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Services. We know there are no funds coming to these homes because Treasury has no money.
In the past, the Department of Social Welfare used to give help to deserving cases such as the disabled and visually impaired. They received what was due at the end of every month. As of now, I have realised that people in my constituency are no longer receiving any assistance because there is no money.
These people, after failing to access their allocations, come to the chief to ask for assistance and I end up pumping out some donations to them. The Social Welfare Department is there to assist by giving help to the vulnerable and not replace our cultural norms and values. We have always been taking care of the disabled within our homes. Therefore, I am urging the Committee that whatever we believe in – as our culture, and Government has introduced some form of donations, let us not abandon our culture because when that fund runs dry, they will go back to the chiefs and ask for assistance.
We need to root cause analysis on origins of these orphans, where do they come from and what makes these parents throw away their newly born babies. We can start there and we also have psychologists and psychiatrists and other people involved who can investigate the reasons for having these children who are picked up from the streets, yet they have parents. This is taboo and is not supposed to be happening, hence my call that we need to investigate why we have this. I know there could be more involved to it. Of course, we have situations whereby some of these children who come to these places come from their homes, like the street kids these days and we wonder why they are doing that. They are picked up and put in the homes.
As a chief, I attend many services conducted by other churches. I am a Seventh Day Adventist and I remember in one sermon, the Pope preached about the family and he put emphasis on the importance of the family and said the family was the sanctuary of life. Whenever an individual has a problem, the first port of call is the family. The first clinical doctor is your family. When those people are about to die, no matter how rich they are, they go to members of their families with their problems. I am saying we should be looking at the reasons why families are being destroyed and why the divorce?
We have noticed that the reason some people dump their babies is that their families would have let them down and they have nowhere to get assistance with the newly born infant. In the past, whenever you had a problem with your children, you would go to your uncles and aunts and they would give assistance in the upbringing of that child. We need to look at it as Parliament.
You have said traditional leaders should be empowered because we have heard of these communal works which were done by the chiefs – Zunde Ramambo. It was the one which was acting in the place of these orphanages yet it was running the homes which were taking care of the widows, the widowers and the sick.
However, some people do not understand this role. We noticed that whenever the academics are taking their degree programmes, especially at Masters level, like when they are studying about investigations in the children, they take their Masters using literature from abroad; hence it cannot be implemented in the situation of Zimbabwe. When we ask this person to implement what he would have learnt, he would be carrying out what he had during the studies in
Europe.
When you make investigations on the background of these academics who are occupying these positions, they would have studied a book by John Smith when he was in the United States of America or United Kingdom. They then came to Zimbabwe saying they are educated but the background they are using is not Zimbabwean but foreign. They believe that what they learnt from abroad to be the best. When you tell them about the Zimbabwean culture, they will tell you that it is a backward culture, we need to move with the times. When we talk of education, if somebody has been educated in Charumbira or Gwanda as far as people talk of intelligence, they say Western education is the best. As a result, when the colonialists came into this country, they started by destroying our culture saying anything that is cultural is pagan. Those of the Roman Catholic Church came in 1961 and 1962 because when the whites came, the missionaries also came. They said we cannot play traditional drums, it is diabolic; they wanted us to play the Piano.
As a result, even when we talk about indigenisation, if you are not empowered; we need to be empowered culturally and you would find we can develop through indigenisation. Most importantly, we have to be empowered in the way we think as Africans. As a result, when we talk of empowerment, we need to have that cultural background. If you lack that background, even if your project is funded, you will end up abusing that fund because you were not cultured. We need to look for ways of solving the problems in these orphanages. My suggestion is that let us not use the Western ways of solving our problems but let us look at the cultural way. We may look at the way these homes were established. Before they were established, what was happening, how were the orphans and the widows taken care of? This will help us solve our problems.
We also have more churches now than in the past. In the 1980’s, we had people who did not belong to any church. However, nowadays almost everyone of us has a church yet, people are committing more sins and that is what worries me. In the past, people used to attend these services, one day a week like on Sunday and on Sabbath day. Now, because of the proliferation of churches, we have church services everyday yet people are becoming sinners in their multitude. What has gone wrong, what should we do? As Members of this Committee, we need to study and establish what is happening in other countries so that we can have a comparison on these homes.
As far as I am concerned, I do not think in Islamic country or
Arabic countries, we have children’s homes. You will not get this in an Islamic society because they have a tight and strict culture of Islam which is followed, hence there is no baby dumping. We have lost our culture, norms and values. As a result, when a woman gives birth to a child, she is prepared to dump that baby in a toilet or dustbin, wrapped in a plastic. We need to investigate where the problem is coming from.
We need to investigate and not just start by talking of orphanages.
We have established days which we commemorate such as the Girl Child Day. One of the problems which has made us to establish this day; I debated this with the Minister of Gender, talking about the day of the Girl Child. The girl child gets impregnated, the man is just let go free and is not punished and yet society will blame the girl child. When that young man has denied paternity, that baby girl will be desperate and hence, end up dumping that child. As Parliament, we need to put in place some legislation which will also punish young men who impregnate these girls. I remember in one of my courts, there was a young man who was saying I slept with the girl on the 6th of November. I came from South Africa on the 3rd November yet you are saying I am responsible for this pregnancy when I only slept with the girl once. So, how can I impregnate somebody by sleeping with her just once? Hence, we need to look into this issue closely.
Talking of the Arabs, when they see you standing with their sisters, they will point a gun at you or even just shoot you. Their culture justifies that because they would want to know what you were doing with that girl. They know if they let you go free, when you then impregnate the girls you will deny paternity and that girl ends up dumping the child. I thank you.
*HON. SEN. MAWIRE: Thank you Mr. President for affording
me the opportunity to add my voice on this issue which was raised by Hon. Makore and the seconder. This is a very important issue, I am not part of the Committee but I want to thank them, starting with the Chairperson and the other Members whom they travelled with, for remembering the orphanage. We have heard what was being articulated by all those who travelled with this Committee.
I am not going to say a lot because it has already been said. How I view this issue is the way these orphanages are instituted; some of them are just run-away children because of poverty, especially the Chirinda Home. I am just appealing to the Government that through the Ministry of Public Service and Social Welfare which is headed by Minister Mupfumira, that all the people should be investigated, all the institutions, whether church run or other organisations that when they take these children and group them in these homes, we are only looking at concentrating on big institutions, but there are also small institutions. I came across an institution in Seke where this lady is now looking after orphans and there are children who are being looked after by this lady. There is also another homestead in one of the villages. When I look at these villages, I can rightly say some of them just want to make money out of it. They lure donors to support them so that they will benefit from the proceeds from well-wishers.
The Ministry should vet all the people who want to engage in this business. I am sorry that I have pointed to an Hon. Senator who is in this House. These people should be vetted thoroughly to see whether they are capable and have the resources to look after these children. They should also look at the conditions which these children will be subjected to. If they pass, they should be given a go ahead. We see that we are starting our own small businesses and later on, they become a burden to the Government. We have heard a lot of speakers blaming the
Government on the issue of these institutions on how these children are being looked after.
I want to support Hon. Sen. Marava when he pointed to our culture and referred to chiefs. It is true that our chiefs should be given all their powers in full. They should preside over these issues in their courts. When I was married in Hwedza in 1984, I came across an issue involving Dr. Chemuguri but that was his father’s name. What happened is that when he was born, his mother dumped him. He was picked by head boys. They rescued him and took him to the chiefs. The chiefs gathered the elders and they rescued the child from that anthill. The chief was the one who looked after him. When he came back, he built a homestead for that chief and also built a school out of the country.
The chief solved that issue by gathering all his subjects and enquired as to who had done such an abominable deed of dumping a child. All the people pointed to a certain girl in the community whom people had seen pregnant, but was no longer pregnant. When the girl was quizzed about that, she agreed. What we are doing these days by adopting the white man’s culture is not right. I think we should look at these issues from a cultural perspective by giving our chiefs all their powers so that they preside in their courts.
There are some issues which are being taken to our courts which should not go there. They should be presided locally by our chiefs. We should preserve our culture as Zimbabweans and Africans. When you go to South Africa and Botswana, they have their own culture. Here in Zimbabwe, we want to infuse all these foreign cultures.
We have heard from the President of the chiefs’ council when he was saying all our children when they go out to learn, they are bringing in these foreign cultures. As Government, we are weak when it comes to that. We listen to them and accept what they bring in forgetting that we also have our own culture which we should preserve as African people.
So, I am pleading with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Services to vet all the people. I also heard that these children graduate after 18 years because they will not be accommodated in these orphanages.
If you look at Government policies when we have orphans in our midst, maybe it is the father who remains with the children and if there is pension, we find that at 18 years, the child is no longer benefitting. So, I think our Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare together with the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment should also revisit these homes where these children are being accommodated. They should also assess especially the groups that will be graduating so that they will be placed in these vocational training centres so that we teach them life skills.
We heard our President who was saying that even if you acquire your degrees without any theory, it does not help us because we have people who cannot use their hands or minds to come up with innovations. We have heard about empowerment. Empowering a person is not just giving them money, but when we take these graduates from these institutions, they should be grouped. This is because they should be given capital so that they start projects. We know that death is God’s design. So we should not blame these institutions when they let all those children to graduate because we are throwing these children away.
The Government should take these children and give them projects to do. What I am gathering from those who learn is that the things that are being donated to these homes are being taken by the people who are working there. So, we see that there are weaknesses in Government where the staff in the institutions is benefitting from donations that are given to these institutions. We are pleading that the law should be followed that when institutions have been found that they are not able to look after these children, they should be abolished.
The Government should be burdened with children who are in good institutions. So, I just wanted to add my voice. I have heard that some have got land and so, they should be given irrigation so that they engage in farming. So, Mr. President, I want to say that what I have said is enough. I want to give a chance to others. Thank you.
*HON. SEN. MACHINGAIFA: Thank you Mr. President for
giving me the chance to make my contribution. I would like to support this motion which has been moved in this House regarding the orphanages and the state of the children. The Committee came across some very bad and some other pleasing situations in these homes. We do realise that these homes exist in our country and the founders of these homes have the welfare of the orphanages at heart. However, as time goes on, these founders die and there are people who take over the running of these homes. When they do this, they do it for their own benefit, hence they mishandle such homes.
I remember I became an acting chief when my father passed on. There was a couple who came to us and said they wanted to take care of orphans in our area of jurisdiction. When I asked them where they would get food and clothing to support the children, they said they were going to source for support from donations. I gave them an ultimatum that for the next six months, you should feed children in a certain school and I will be assured that you are people who can take care of orphans.
We do realise that some of the people who run these homes, take them for fundraising. They take photographs and create profile pictures which are taken to donors, some of whom are overseas. When the donations are sent to these homes, the care givers take advantage. They loot and benefit through corrupt means and take them instead of letting them benefit the children.
My advice is, whosoever wants to be employed as a caregiver should take an oath of allegiance so that they work on their pledge that they will support these children whole-heartedly. I also urge the Ministry to hold ad hoc inspections so that they look at the welfare of these children. When we are seeking for donations for food or clothes, we have some members who would move from shop to shop or village to village sourcing for these goods.
We also have Government farms which also used to give donations and these people would be given a portion which would assist these orphanages. As a result, we need to follow some of these traditions because if you do not follow them, we will have some people who would use the orphanages for their own benefit. We may also have a problem in that some of the children may be involved in child trafficking because nobody knows how many children they are or where there go.
I am also saying traditional leaders need to be involved because I have heard that the members of the Committee visited the orphanage but did not visit the chiefs in the area. I also heard that they visited Matthew Rusike Children’s Home but did not inspect the Donations Register. It would have been worthwhile that they inspected the Donations Register in order to know those who donated and those who benefited from that donation.
We are also advocating that in these orphanages, children should be empowered by giving some skills which will enable them to take care of themselves when they attain the age of 18 and leave the orphanage. They would benefit from the skills which they have acquired. When we look at our cultures, in the United States, somebody who is called a cowboy is somebody who is held in high esteem. He fights with cattle rustlers. Some of them have even become presidents and yet in our country, a herd boy is somebody who is held to a very low esteem. Let us empower children in these orphanages so that they can take care of themselves after attaining the age of 18.
Again, we need to establish how these orphanages were founded. When donations come, there should be a record of who brought them, how much were they and how they benefited the children. We need to make a follow up on these donors so that we ask for more donations from them. We even have some singers who use the names of these homes to collect funds. These singers should donate part of the funds to the orphanages. They should pledge part of their gate takings to orphanages in their areas.
We talked to people who work for the Social Welfare department. They are blaming members of the public because they are giving donations to children in the streets. They give them money and food, hence if you want to take this child to an orphanage, they will never feel settled because they are used to receiving money. So, let us work on our legislation and go back to our culture which will help us take care of our children. We are talking of our culture and we should give our chiefs their rightful place. We know in our culture, we live a communal life.
Whatever problem that befalls on one, it is everybody’s problem.
Hence, when we have taken these children to orphanages and put them under the traditional chiefs, the children will be taken care of.
We also need to look into our culture. When youngsters are in love, they should not indulge in sex. When they indulge in sex, they end up with babies who they then dump in filthy places. We need to give this advice to the youngsters that love does not mean sexual intercourse but we need to prepare for the future.
HON. SEN. MAKORE: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. MARAVA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 27th October, 2016.
MOTION
SECOND REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT ON EARLY CHILD MARRIAGES
Fourth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Second
Report of the Thematic Committee on Gender and Development on
Early Child Marriages.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. MAKORE: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. MARAVA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 27th October, 2016.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE DELEGATION TO THE 39TH PLENARY
ASSEMBLY OF THE SADC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM
Fifth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the delegation to the 39th Plenary Assembly of the SADC Parliamentary Forum.
Question again proposed.
HON. SEN. TAWENGWA: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
HON. SEN. MARAVA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 27th October, 2016.
On the motion of SENATOR TAWENGWA seconded by SENATOR MARAVA, the Senate adjourned at Eighteen Minutes to
Four O’clock p.m.