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Mukudzei Chingwere, Herald Reporter
The 2022 Marriage Act which consolidated into a single law the previous separate laws for civil marriage and customary marriage has generated a lot of incorrect and misleading social media posts, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi yesterday clarified that the only major change was the setting of a minimum age of 18.
“Recent social media posts purporting to explain the meaning and scope of the provisions of the new Marriages Act (Chapter 5:17], which was promulgated in 2022, have been brought to my attention,” he said.
“As the minister responsible for the administration of justice in the country and specifically assigned to administer the Marriages Act, I wish to categorically state that these social media posts are misleading, mischievous and deliberately intended to create alarm and despondency amongst the generality of the public.”
He said the Act consolidated in a single piece of legislation the laws governing all legally recognised marriages in the country. Before its promulgation, two separate Acts provided the legal framework of marriages, the Marriage Act [Chapter 5:11], governing civil marriages and the Customary Marriages Act [Chapter 5:07], governing registered customary marriages.
“The new Act did not and does not alter the erstwhile requirements for a valid civil or registered customary law marriage, save to the limited extent of placing a complete prohibition on child marriages — thus bringing our marriage laws into conformity with Section 78(1)(a) of the Constitution, which prescribes the minimum age of marriage as 18 years.
“To this end it is important to point out that the payment of roora/lobola or marriage consideration remains a requirement for customary law marriages,” said Minister Ziyambi.
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The new Act provided for three types of legally recognised marriages: the civil marriage which was monogamous between one man and one wife; the registered customary law marriage which was polygamous or potentially polygamous contracted between adult Africans; and the qualified civil marriage which was polygamous or potentially polygamous, in the main catering for adherents of the Islamic faith.
“The latter type of marriage is a new inclusion to the country’s marriage laws,” said Minister Ziyambi.
Through ongoing community outreach programmes, Government aimed to ensure that citizens are well-informed about their rights and responsibilities under the new legal framework.
Besides the legally recognised marriages there were two other types of genuine domestic arrangements which while not marriages could influence how assets were distributed on the arrangement being ended, or when a partner died without a will, and on some aspects concerning children born in the relationship.
These two were the unregistered customary union, and the civil partnership, neither of which, the Minister stressed, were recognised as a legally recognised marriage.
An unregistered customary union could become a legally recognised marriage by being registered. The new law also allowed a monogamous registered customary union to be converted into a registered civil union, for the first time linking the two main types of marriage.
Otherwise the unregistered customary union and civil partnership, while not being recognised marriages, were recognised by the new Act but only for the purposes of rights and duties of the parties.
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