By Kundai Marunya
LESBIANS, Gays, Bi-sexuals, Transgenders and Queers (LGBTQ) continue to re-invent their recruitment antics, luring the less privileged and the gullible into their undesirable ranks.
From normalising gays in popular (pop) culture, which includes recruiting celebrities in advocating gay rights, to sneaking in subliminal messages promoting same-sex unions in cartoons (animation), a television genre specially meant for children, one would think nothing else will be surprising when it comes to their antics.
This unsavoury practice has even weaponised poverty to force young people into submission, if the recent advert for ‘Munhu-Munhu’, a scholarship scheme for university students who identify as LGBTQ, is anything to go by.
There is nothing wrong with sponsoring scholarships for young students from under-privileged backgrounds, if done within the confines of the law and society’s morals.
It is the norm that scholarships are awarded to best performing students who fail to raise the necessary fees, as is done by the Government through the Presidential Scholarships and various foundations, such as the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Memorial Scholarship.
Of late, there has been a spike in such financial facilities to female students, with emphasis on those pursuing studies in Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Never has there been a scholarship based on sexual orientation, that is before the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) introduced their ‘Munhu-Munhu’ scholarship which has gone viral on social media in recent weeks.
Its popularity was, however, for all the wrong reasons.
Questions were raised over the legality of such adverts and acceptance of LGBTQ.
Posting on X (formerlyTwitter), social commentator Dereck Goto opined that the scholarship offer was a recruitment tactic by the Western-funded Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) with the aim of exacerbating social tensions within the country.
“Notably, critics have pointed fingers at Western embassies, particularly the US and Dutch embassies, accusing them of spearheading efforts to promote gay rights under the pretext of human rights advocacy,” said Goto.
“Activists have capitalised on these foreign initiatives, utilising them to advance their agenda and secure funding from international donors.
Sceptics argue that such scholarships are merely a ploy to generate revenue, likening them to tactics employed by opposition figures to garner support from foreign backers.
The GALZ scholarship controversy underscores the ongoing struggle between local cultural values and external influences, sparking debates about the boundaries of human rights advocacy and the role of foreign entities in shaping domestic policies.”
Public outrage forced Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga to promptly issue a presser denouncing gay and lesbian practices in Zimbabwe.
“The Government of Zimbabwe strongly and firmly rejects and denounces as unlawful, un-Christian, anti-Zimbabwean and un-African insidious attempts by foreign interests to entice, lure and recruit Zimbabwe’s less privileged but able students into Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender activities and malpractices through offers of educational scholarships,” fumed Dr Chiwenga.
“Zimbabwe has legislated against all such (sexual) deviances, making any offers predicated on the same aberrations both unlawful and criminal, and a grave and gross affront on our national values and ethos as a Christian nation.”
Dr Chiwenga issued a stern warning against those taking advantage of students facing financial difficulties.
“Government sees such scholarship offers as a direct challenge on its authority, and thus will not hesitate to take appropriate measures to enforce national laws, and to protect and defend national values,” he said.
“Our schools and institutions of higher learning will not entertain applicants, let alone enrol persons associated with such alien, anti-life, un-African and un-Christian values which are being promoted and cultivated by, as well as practised in decadent societies with whom we share no moral or cultural affinities.
“Zimbabwe is a sovereign, African State with definite laws and values which typify it, cutting it apart from other mores.
Young Zimbabweans, who qualify for enrolment into tertiary institutions here and elsewhere, should approach Government departments tasked to give grants and scholarship support to deserving cases.
They should never be tempted to trade or sell their souls for such abominable and devilish offers.”
‘Munhu-Munhu’ is a Shona phrase that can loosely be translated as ‘we are all human beings’ which, in this case, is used as a rallying point to justify an immoral act that goes against nature.
An old adage says ‘Munhu hunhu’, which means for one to be called a human being (munhu) his/her behaviour (hunhu) must be deemed acceptable by the rest of society.
This is the humanity and sincerity lacking in GALZ’s actions, thus recruiting young impoverished students into gayism.
These are the same antics being used to lure impoverished people into their immoral activities through offers of free healthcare in the country’s major cities and towns.
Legal expert Advocate Seppy Hannah Ndlovu says the law explicitly bans homosexuality.
“It is illegal to engage in a sexual activity with a person of the same sex in Zimbabwe,” she told The Patriot in no uncertain terms.
“In simple terms, a male person cannot have sexual intercourse with another male person; the same applies to females.
“The law also explicitly bans same-sex marriages.
“The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, in Section 78 Subsection 3, expressly states that the only acceptable marriage in Zimbabwe is between people of different sexes. These are the only unions recognised at law, anything outside that is illegal.”
Advocate Ndlovu was quick to emphasise that any sexual act between people of the same sex was liable to prosecution and could invite up to a year in prison.
“The Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act: Section 73; Subsection 1 stresses that any male person with the consent of another male person who knowingly performs sexual intercourse with that male person shall be guilty of sodomy and is liable to a fine and imprisonment of up to a year,” she said.
Though the law explicitly bans homosexuality, those who advocate the appalling practice have been taking advantage of the fact that the law only prosecutes the act of homosexuality, and not the identification of a person as one.
Gays and lesbians have been roaming free, recruiting others to their sexual orientation, prompting religious groups to call for stiffer laws and penalties.
Council of African Churches head Bishop Rocky Moyo said lawmakers need to enact laws that ban the promotion of LGBTQ activities.
“We can’t have a situation where people go around publicly declaring their homosexuality, promoting homosexual activities and doing so freely without prosecution then we turn around and say we have banned homosexuality.
“We need to realign our laws to match what we have been preaching all this time,” Bishop Moyo said.
The Council of African Churches head said his organisation was going to lobby for anti-gay laws that carry heavy penalties across the African continent.
Africa is under immense pressure from Western countries to embrace homosexuality.
Though some countries, such as South Africa, have buckled under pressure in the hope of avoiding economic penalties in the form of sanctions for ‘human rights abuse’, a majority of countries on the continent have stood defiantly against gay and lesbian rights.
Just last month, Ghana’s Parliament unanimously passed an Anti-Gay Bill that prescribes a three-year jail term for identifying oneself as LGBTQ+ and a five-year term for promoting LGBTQ+ activities.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni literally told the West ‘to go to hell’ when he signed his country’s Anti-Gay Bill into law.
Former Zambian President Edgar Lungu is also on record as telling the West to stuff their poisoned chalice where the sun doesn’t shine, adding for good measure that he preferred poverty with dignity steeped in hunhu/ubuntu.
The backlash against LGBTQ+ ‘rights’ goes beyond Africa as, in the Middle East, Qatar turned a deaf ear to pleas from the West to allow homosexuality during the FIFA World Cup which they successfully hosted in November 2022.
The Patriot has, on numerous occasions, incurred the wrath of these low lives by shining the light in their closets, but they never seem to learn.