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Bob invokes Bible against gays
06/03/2004 16:44 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday lashed out anew at homosexuality and also promised to stamp out corruption, which he said was destroying the crisis-ridden southern African nation.
Mugabe, who turned 80 last month, was speaking at a special thanksgiving ceremony for his long life organised by prominent Zimbabwean churchman Obadiah Musindo.
"I'm morally repulsed by homosexuality," Mugabe told the function, which also featured popular gospel singers and choirs.
Mugabe, who has called homosexuals "worse than pigs and dogs", said same-sex marriages also deserved outright condemnation.
Not Adam and Adam
"It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam, Eve and Eve," he said in biblical reference to humanity's first parents.
"Let us never entertain the theory that man and man can form a family."
Mugabe also waxed eloquent on corruption - a theme he has taken up recently - saying Zimbabweans had the right to prosperity honestly gained.
But anyone guilty of corruption would be brought to book no matter "who it is that offends - a relative of mine, a great man in business, a great politician."
Offending businessmen would also be dealt harshly with because they were "offending against the rules of our society... ruining our own heritage."
The function was attended by government officials, prominent Zimbabweans and hundreds of flag-waving students.
Reverend Musindo, the organiser of the function, described Mugabe as a "black, political, economic Moses" whose vision was "to raise millionaires and billionaires" in the country.
The economy of the former British colony has been in a nose-dive in recent years with international support drying up, and rates of inflation and interest skyrocketing to record highs of more than 600 percent.
Mugabe's reputation as an African statesman started fading in recent years after the country - once the region's breadbasket - slid into economic decline as land reforms which had been left unresolved for years, were jump-started with the violent occupation of white-owned farms.
- AFP
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