Senators Want Corporal Punishment To Be Legalised
Senators on Thursday demanded the repeal of a law banning corporal punishment (caning) saying children are increasingly becoming indisciplined.
The senators said since the banning of corporal punishment, children have become rouge and are now indulging in illicit drugs and abscond school.
Contributing to the debate, Beitbridge senator Tambudzani Mohadi said indiscipline has resulted in unbridled drug abuse which is now destroying the lives of youths. She said:
I come from Matabeleland South where we have border areas like Plumtree and Beitbridge, children do not even know what schools are because of drugs. They are always high on drugs.
It is said that there are drugs that are called mutoriro, musombodhiya and mbanje. They will be idle for a long time while intoxicated.
Even if they are to go to school, teachers always face difficulties trying to get them to be attentive in class. They are not healthy because of these drugs.
Every time they take the drugs, they forget that they are supposed to take a bath, eat, and dress in clean clothes.
They do not stay on the job because of the influence of these drugs. Today’s future consists of drunkards who do not even know where they reside.
They do not even know what they are doing when they are drunk. The problem is that at times when you report the drug peddlers to our law enforcement officers, in other instances are paid in a corrupt manner and our efforts go unnoticed.
Another senator, Chief Chikwaka, said the only way to deal with the problem of drug abuse was to restore corporal punishment. He said:
A nation without laws, a nation without culture is not a nation. I am appealing that we go back to the drawing board, to our culture and ensure that we discipline our children so that they know that taking or abuse of drugs destroys the nation.
The use of corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure for ill-behaviour in Zimbabwe’s schools was banned in 2017 through a High Court ruling that declared article 60(2) (c) of the Educational Act unconstitutional.
