They, homosexuals, had to be completely destroyed,” he said.

“Poofters must know that we are a Christian nation,” said Tawanda Gumbo of Kuwadzana. “They chose to be gay.

Forget this nonsense about them being born gay.

If it is true that some people are born gay then we should see some animals that are attracted to the same sex as well.

The fact that there are no gay cattle, elephants, etc, shows it’s something that people choose to do, something that is not natural, something that is against God’s will.”

Stella Mugwengwe of Tafara said the gay issue was the only area she absolutely agreed with the Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe. He has in the past referred to them as worse than pigs and dogs.

“How can we, as an African nation, give any rights to ‘stoopers and stabbers’? Not in Zimbabwe,”said Mugwengwe. “We don’t want to legalise such a sin. It is against God’s natural law.”

Yusuf Phiri, a Moslem Imam (pastor) in Banket said Moslems were against homosexuality and it would be a big mistake to give them any rights in the new constitution.

“This is how it begins,”he said. “You give them a penny and they will soon ask for a pound. Very soon they will be demanding that we recognise same sex marriages.

I say no. Sodomy should remain illegal in Zimbabwe.”

Elderly Sekuru Gondo of Murombedzi asked, “Do such liaisons produce children? God created man and woman for the sole purpose of reproduction. Being a homosexual is contrary to God’s arrangement.”

He said Zimbabweans should be steadfast against such perverted orientation.

Attempts in the past by the gay community to have their rights enshrined in the constitution have been overwhelmingly rejected by Zimbabweans .

"Villagers in Umzingwane district do not want rights of homosexuals to be enshrined in the new constitution, and have called for the hanging of those engaged in homosexual practices," a Zimbabwean newspaper, The Chronicle, said in 1999.

Sodomy — anal sex between men — is illegal in Zimbabwe but liaisons between women is not. This time around, many feel, the gay community still faces a brick wall. However, there is a sizeable number of Zimbabweans, including high-profile figures, who are closet homosexuals.

Former information minister Jonathan Moyo was alleged to be gay.

Former adviser and international spokesman for the Mugabe’s regime David Nyekorach Matsanga said he had obtained fibres from Moyo’s hair which had been scientifically tested at a London Hospital and proved that the vitriolic Tsholotsho Member of Parliament had female hormones and therefore gay.

Job Sikhala, the former St Mary’s MP once claimed in court Moyo wanted to fix him for asking if rumours that Moyo had a homosexual relationship with disgraced former ZBC chief Alum Mpofu while they were both at Wits University in South Africa were true.

Mpofu had earlier on been caught in a compromising position with another man at a Harare nightclub, leading to his dismissal.