Chronicle Editor
Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Matabeleland South Bureau Chief
THERE is need to engage chiefs and headmen in order to adequately address issues pertaining to child marriages, an official has said.
In a move to protect children’s rights, the Constitutional Court in 2016 banned child marriages and other harmful practices that are detrimental to childhood.
The landmark ruling followed a year-long case where two former young brides, Loveness Mudzuru and Ruvimbo Tsopodzi filed an application asking the Constitutional Court to declare the Marriage Act and the Customary Marriage Act a breach of the new Constitution.
The court further said other illegitimate marriages that have taken place on religious or cultural grounds are unconstitutional.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Zimbabwe Women Parliamentary Caucas (ZWPC) consultative meeting on child marriages in Gwanda yesterday, ZWPC acting chairperson Sibusisiwe Budha-Masara said chiefs and headmen have a pivotal role to play in curbing child marriages.
“We’ve been hearing a lot about child marriages and often these issues are swept under the carpet but we’re so happy that women now realise that they have power and that they can speak up against child marriages.
There are also situations where there’s a girl aged 13 or 14 dating a boy who is 18, and they’re both at school. The girl gets home late and her parents send her back saying she’s now this boy’s wife.
According to the law, this is a serious crime. The girl is still a child but this is how these things are happening,” said the MP.
She said Government should revisit the issue of corporal punishment as children are now taking the law into their own hands.
“Now they say even if you beat me, I’m going to report you. We need to raise awareness on what it means to discipline a child. Some say they’re disciplining their children and they end up killing them.
Some children come from poor families and their parents think if they allow them to get married to an old, rich man, it will assist in terms of addressing their poverty at home. But this isn’t the answer, it actually causes a lot of harm.
“We need to take a further step and involve chiefs and headmen as the custodians of the communities where a lot of these child marriages are happening. We’ve been telling villagers to inform their local leaders, that is the chiefs and the headmen where cases of child marriages are concerned and someone said if the chief is the one involved, where will I go and report.
This means we need to take charge and involve chiefs in coming up with solutions to address child marriages,” she added.
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