Zimbabwe’s male cabinet ministers have agreed to be circumcised as part of a government programme to encourage more men to campaign in the fight against HIV and Aids, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe has said.

The southern African country in 2009 launched an ambitious health programme that seeks to circumcise at least five million men.

Khupe who heads the social cluster in President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet said she had been met with little resistance from the ministers. She said ministers were supposed to lead by example if the fight against Aids was to be won.

MPs and councilors will also be targeted under the programme.

“Our target is to have zero deaths emanating from HIV and Aids. We can only achieve that when the opinion leaders are setting the pace,” she told journalists at the weekend.

“People need to understand that HIV is there and no one should think that talking about male circumcision is taboo.”

There are 33 male cabinet ministers and deputies and it is not known how many are already circumcised.

Khupe said her office had invited a South African health institution to demonstrate circumcision procedures to ministers.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic.

But the rate of infection has gone down, almost halving from 29 percent of the population in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007.

Zimbabwe is one of 13 countries in East and Southern Africa participating in a US$2.5 billion programme to circumcise 38 million men – 80 percent of the male population under 49 years old – over the next 15 years.

http://www.theafricareport.com/archives2/politics/5170672-zimbabwean-ministers-to-be-circumcised.html