The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE nine-year-old girl from Tsholotsho District who gave birth in November last year will return to school this week together with other learners as she was certified fit and discharged by the specialist doctor who was seeing her and in accordance with a care plan devised by the probation officer assigned to the case.
The Government is set to cater for her fees and other educational requirements.
The nine-year-old gave birth via Caesarean section and has been “healing well”. She has started playing with other children at the safe house that she has been staying in since her story unfolded last year.
The minor was impregnated by her 13-year-old cousin.
Officials from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare told Sunday News that the girl would return to school as part of the rehabilitation processes as the Ministry finds other means to ensure that her life returns to normalcy.
In an interview, acting Matabeleland North Provincial Social Development Officer Mr Golden Mapanga said the nine-year-old was returning to an undisclosed school where she would do Grade Four. The learning institution will not be disclosed as a means of protecting the minor from discrimination.
Caesarean section
“According to the care plan devised by the probation officer, the nine-year-old is returning to school at the beginning of first term to continue with her education. It is our mandate and responsibility to administer the Children’s Act so that this child gets all the needs due to her hence she is returning to school,” said Mr Mapanga.
He said there were consultations done to reach this decision as a Ministry.
“Case conferencing was done over this matter. When we case conference, we bring together responsible stakeholders who make up what we call a Best Interests Determination Panel. These people devise a plan of how a particular issue can be dealt with and with the Tsholotsho case this is what happened, the stakeholders met and discussed how to handle the matter,” he said.
Mr Mapanga said the Government was going to take care of all schooling needs of the minor adding that various stakeholders were assisting in handling the matter and future care plans were being devised.
“Alternative care is available for the nine-year-old in the future which is institutional or foster care and as schools open the child will be in alternative care. The Government is going to pay for her school fees and other needs that are required. We are trying by all means to protect this child and ensure she is not stigmatised hence she will not return to her old school but to a new one at a safe location,” he said.
Mr Mapanga, however, said it was initially not their wish for the minor to have been informed that she was carrying a baby.
“Following the discovery of the pregnancy, we had resolved as a Ministry that the minor was not supposed to know that she was pregnant but she was somehow informed. We also resolved that she should not breastfeed the newborn as that would create a bonding issue which we were trying to control until she is old enough to know what happened to her. We also want to ensure she faces no discrimination and further trauma in her adult life,” he said.
During the initial case conference in Tsholotsho last year it is said the issue of termination of pregnancy in accordance with Zimbabwean laws was discussed and discarded as there were various factors working against the possible termination of the nine-year-old’s pregnancy.
Subject to the Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1977, a pregnancy may be terminated: (a) where the continuation of the pregnancy so endangers the life of the woman concerned or so constitutes a serious threat of permanent impairment of her physical health that the termination of the pregnancy is necessary to ensure her life or physical health, as the case may be; or
(b) where there is a serious risk that the child to be born will suffer from a physical or mental defect of such a nature that he will permanently be seriously handicapped; or
(c) where there is a reasonable possibility that the foetus is conceived as a result of unlawful intercourse (incest).
If the pregnancy resulted from unlawful intercourse (incest), a magistrate of a court in the jurisdiction where the abortion will be performed must certify that the alleged intercourse was reported to the police and that pregnancy may have resulted from it.
However, when the case of the Tsholotsho minor was discovered, it was past the required time frame essential for one to get a legal abortion by, she was past the seven-month mark and could not be permitted to get a termination.
DNA tests
During that period, DNA tests were not yet conducted as the nine-year-old had not given birth, furthermore, since the paternity of the child was still a mystery, the issue of incest was not yet clear. DNA later revealed the nine-year-old was impregnated by her 13-year-old cousin from the same village in Tsholotsho and not her biological father as initially alleged. -@NyembeziMu
