Times Of Swaziland: CALL FOR POLICY ON HOW MANY KIDS A PERSON CAN HAVE

CALL FOR POLICY ON HOW MANY KIDS A PERSON CAN HAVE
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Nonduduzo Kunene on 09/05/2023 08:46:00


MBABANE – Senator Chief Zabeni Shiba say the country should have a strict
policy that will stipulate the number of children each person should have in the
country.
The senator made this submission when the deputy prime minister was tabling the
regulations yesterday.  The senator said he observed that the reason government
had so much challenges and making the regulations that were tabled in Senate was
because people were busy giving birth to children they could not afford. He said
it was worrisome that people were busy giving birth to children then later on
expected government to look after them. He noted that some of the children who
would be given up for adoption and in foster homes, only a selected few would be
single or double orphaned, but most of them had their parents very much alive
but the parents simply did not have means to look after them.
Burden
The senator said looking at the burden government was carrying due to children
that were born by people who did not have the means to take care of their
children, the county should have strict laws on how many children people were
permitted to have. Shiba said he recalled that at one point, there were talks
that government would draft a policy that would stipulate how many children a
person should have. He said he was not sure how the policy would work for people
who had more than one spouse but he was confident that there would be a way
around the legislation. He urged the DPM to look into formulating that policy.
Meanwhile, the DPM stated that a policy of that sort was under the portfolio of
the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. He said that ministry might
need to provide updates on possibilities of having such policy in place.