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Gay news: 'The ancestors will turn in their graves should we allow this to happen'
Mugabe: 'madness - insanity'
Mugabe and Tsvangirai reject gay rights for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's new constitution will include no provision for gay rights, President Robert Mugabe and prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai have agreed.
Gay groups, including Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), have asked for recognition and protection in the constitution being negotiated by the power-sharing government.
But according to the state-owned Herald newspaper, Mugabe said today: "That issue is not debatable, it's not up for discussion.
"It is just madness, insanity. The ancestors will turn in their graves should we allow this to happen."
Tsvangirai said: "I totally agree with the president. Women make up 52% of the population ... There are more women than men, so why should men be proposing to men?"
Mugabe has described homosexuality as "un-African" and a "white man's disease" and gay people as "worse than pigs and dogs".
Male homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe, and although there is no legal reference to women, the additional 'sexual deviancy' law of 2006 made any actions perceived as homosexual between two people of the same sex illegal.
Chesterfield Samba, the director of GALZ, told BBC News he was seeking clarification of Mugabe and Tsvangirai's comments, which were "very worrying".
