The Sunday News
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
DEEP in the rural areas of Silobela in the sprawling Midlands Province, 15-year-old Lubaelihle, struggles to walk to the nearest clinic for registration of her three months pregnancy.
When she finally got there, the nurses insist she brings along her man for tests. She could not give them a straight answer to their request, instead, she looked at them and started crying.
When she realised they were not anywhere close to giving up on their procedural demand, she gathered courage and poured her heart out to the nursing staffers in between sobs of emotional pain.
Luba is the eldest in a family of three and death has not been so forgiving to her, taking both of her parents in successive years leaving them under the care of an old paternal grandmother who they had been relying on.
That was before the unmerciful death struck again, this time robbing them of their grandmother who had become their pillar of strength leaving Luba to fend for her two siblings.
She had dropped out of school as no-one could pay her school fees and had been fending for the family even when the grandmother was unwell.
Boys started sneaking into her bedroom as early as when she was 11, in exchange for a few dollars that she would use to buy a few items at home to supplement what she was getting after selling a bundle or two of vegetables from her garden toils.
Her grandmother had only two children, Luba’s father who died when she was still young and his younger brother who crossed into South Africa soon after completing his Ordinary level and his whereabouts became the subject of village speculation.
In Silobela as in other parts of the country it has become normal that boys, dump school, or soon after completing O-level, either cross to neighbouring South Africa for greener pastures or venture into gold mining activities for a quick buck.
When they score, they return home where they spend the money on alcohol, drugs and women.
Their targets are those that they can easily lure with a few dollars for sexual favours and Luba, was a victim not so much because she was loose morally but her circumstance was as uncomfortable as that of the meat in a sandwich and boys capitalised on that.
Luba and the man who impregnated her never really married. They parted ways after she learnt that he had impregnated and married yet another Form 2 pupil from the same village.
Luba’s predicament is faced by a myriad of girls in Zimbabwe who have not been protected by the law and whose fundamental civil liberties have been violated because of traditional practices and norm.
Statistics have shown that Zimbabwe has a 33,7 percent prevalence rate of child marriages with 5,4 percent of the girls getting married before they reach the age of 15 years while two percent of boys in Zimbabwe marry before they reach 18.
Research carried out by Shamwari Yemwanasikana, a civil organisation, revealed that the major drivers of child marriages are forced marriage due to cultural and religious practices, poverty, circumstances, including teenage pregnancies and poor implementation of laws and policies that protect the girl child.
In the National Baseline Survey on the Life Experiences of Adolescent (NBSLEA), conducted by the Zimbabwe National Statics Agency (ZIMSTAT), 41 percent of girls reported that their sexual debut before 18 was not consensual.
In recent months girls have been eloping due to poverty exacerbated by the Covid-19 induced lockdown, a lengthy period of inactivity and redundance as schools were closed as well as lack of parental guidance among other factors.
A Child Rights Coalition Conference held recently in the mining town of Kwekwe courtesy of the Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC), generally agreed that poverty among children was the elephant in the room.
But in an interview, Chief Malisa of Silobela said gold panners were giving them a headache as they preyed on the poverty-stricken girls, impregnate them and refuse to marry.
“Most families this side are child headed and they are suffering from hunger. Most parents would have gone to South Africa or they died and what remains are the children who then will be forced into early marriages as they scavenge for food. Gold panners take advantage and pounce on them as they lure them with money and as a result, they are impregnated and if they are lucky, which is rare, they are married,” said Chief Malisa.
He said the cases were so rampant that it had become a norm that girls start being sexually active at a tender age.
During the conference, it was revealed that six junior councillors from the district were impregnated during the Covid-19 lockdown.
In a side interview, ZNCWC Board Chair, Dr Lamiel Phiri expressed disgust over the development saying it points back to the issue of poverty which was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the Government should prioritise food security to the vulnerable in the distribution of food handouts.
“There was a lockdown and food has been distributed but most vulnerable children, especially child headed families have been left out. Government together with its development partners, should take into cognisance the vulnerability of children. It is an issue that they should prioritise because they have no mechanisms of adapting to food shortages,” said Dr Phiri.
Dr Phiri also said the Social Welfare Department should address the element of food security among children as it was pushing them into early sexual activities.
“Some of the children are pushed by circumstances and I think Government should address that component of food security through the Department of Social Welfare,” he said.
Buhera Central legislator Dr Matthew Nyashanu who is the current chair of the parliamentary caucus on rights and welfare of children also weighed in saying Government should act on old traditional practices that do not recognise girl children’s rights and the sprouting of religious sects that abuse girls.
“Poverty and child marriages are not new things; they have been there for a long time now. That is, however, not to say they are good, they are bad because they affect development. There is a need for a collective effort in tackling these,” he said.
Dr Nyashanu said the Government should reign in the sprouting of churches where various doctrines were being spread leading to crimes being committed in the name of religion.
“Under every tree there is a church and as a society we are not aware what is being preached under that tree. That is where various doctrines that degenerate into crime are being spread,” he said.
