The Sunday News
THE draft Marriages Amendment Bill, 2017, approved by Cabinet last week, which criminalises child marriages and proposes a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison for anyone who permits, aids or coerces a minor into marriage is commendable.
This was also a show by Government that it was committed to stop the abuse of the girl child, and notably, such minors are also protected against civil unions or cohabiting.
The draft Bill, in line with the Zimbabwe Constitution, sets 18 years as the minimum age for any form of marriage or union.
The draft says religious leaders, relatives and parents who marry off children under 18 years of age, will be liable to prosecution with a possible penalty of up to five years in jail or a fine not exceeding Level 10.
Part of the Bill reads: “(1) No person under the age of 18 years may contract a marriage or enter into an unregistered customary law marriage or a civil partnership.
(2) For the avoidance of any doubt, child marriages are prohibited and under no circumstance shall any person contract, solemnise, promote, permit, allow or coerce or aid or abet the contracting, solemnising, promotion, permitting, allowing or coercion of the marriage, unregistered customary law marriage, civil partnership, pledging, promise in marriage or betrothal of a child.
“(3) Any person, other than the child concerned, who contravenes subsection (2), shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding Level 10 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.”
A parent or a person in loco parentis found guilty of the offence risks getting the maximum penalty.
The Marriages Act will be repealed and replaced with one consolidated Marriages Amendment Bill, which is a cocktail of civil and political liberties being undertaken by President Mnangagwa under the Second Republic.
Reports say children married off by the age of 15 were four percent in 2017, and children married off by the age of 18 stood at 32 percent by the same year.
Child marriages are driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.
In most parts of the world, it is driven by poverty and the girl child is then married off to reduce the perceived economic burden and earn the family some “wealth from bride price”.
The girl child, especially from poor families is also denied a chance to education, leaving them with the only option to seek marriage, especially to families that are seemingly well off compared to theirs and some children are married off at a tender age because of religious beliefs.
“Members of some apostolic churches reportedly encourage girls as young as ten to marry much older men for “spiritual guidance”.
Men in the church are reportedly entitled to marry girls to shield them from pre-marital sex.”
