MATOBO – Controversial Matobo senator Sithembile Mlotshwa has urged women to participate in sports, saying it was a sure way of marketing themselves for marriage.
REPORT BY NQOBILE BHEBHE SENIOR REPORTER
The legislator once stirred controversy when she suggested that people should have sex once a month and that men must be injected with drugs that reduce their libido, to curb the spread of the HIV virus.
She also called for prisoners to be given sex toys to quench their sexual appetites.
Speaking at a belated 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence in Matobo, the MDC-T senator said not taking part in sports hindered women from freely expressing themselves.
“I urge women to be invoked in sports as taking part helps in expressing one’s self.
“But there are social benefits too. Taking part in sports gives you (women) a good opportunity to market yourselves for marriage,” she said.
Mlotshwa said domestic violence was often portrayed as involving women as victims.She said scores of men were suffering silently too.
“Some women are taking advantage of the popular belief that domestic violence relates to women and children being victims,” she said. “No . . . we are aware that men are also victims.”
Speaking at the same function Women Affairs Gender and Community Development deputy minister Jessie Majome said she was personally campaigning for stiffer sentences for rapists. She said fixed sentences for stocktheft cases had reduced the prevalence of the crime.
“Personally, I am campaigning for fixed higher sentences for rape. Stocktheft cases have reduced due to fixed high sentences for perpetrators.
“Fixed rape sentences would deter people from committing it,” she said Majome.
Majome also called on the police to have forensic laboratories to speed up investigations of rape cases and to provide tangible evidence.
