Marriage of 14-year-old Marange girl who died during childbirth is not isolated case, this is a national pandemic-legislator

THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI):  Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, on the last part, indeed the Bill has been in the Senate for quite some time.  When the Bill was passed here, the Hon. Senators were of the opinion that and they are very strong about it that we must legislate for the payment of lobola.  Our position is that it is against several international conventions that we signed. It even contravenes the Constitution and the legal age of majority.  Once you indicate that you cannot marry without paying lobola, it means that that particular woman is an adult minor, she cannot make a decision on her own. What I have said is that our officials must engage the Chiefs so that we can reach common ground on that particular issue.

I was not of the opinion that it should pass in that form and we take it here and allow a disagreement but to respect each other so that we negotiate and come to a common position, that we all agree, that is the position.  Having said that, the Marriage Bill does not have a criminal sanction for marriages under 18 but it outlaws them.  In other words, what we need to do is to look at our other laws, the Criminal Code, already it criminalises having sexual intercourse with a young girl.  In the case of issues at hand, it is not about marriage per se because marriages are outlawed.  That Marange man does not have a marriage certificate, he is not married to the girl but they cohabit.  What we want to do, which I agree with Hon. Gonese is it is not about criminalising but also engaging our communities so that our communities will appreciate that certain practices are now out of date which is what the Ministry of Women’s Affairs is saying that they are going to do.

I believe that we can then look at our Criminal Code and see how we can tighten it but we must also engage our communities so that some of the harmful practices that we do, we do away with them.  Thank you.

HON. GONESE:  On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir.  If I understood the Hon. Minister correctly, he said that the Bill does not criminalise the participation of people in child marriages.  If he said that, then my point of order would be that would be incorrect.  I think in terms of Clause 3, if my memory serves me right, there is actually a penalty provision. There is a penalty provision in terms of which the person who would have purportedly entered into a marriage as well as the parents, particularly those who are in loco parentis like the guardians actually commit an offence if they purportedly enter into that kind of arrangement. If that were to come into law, it would then enable the Police to actually arrest those parents, ‘ husband’ and so on, perhaps if the Hon. Minister can clarify that.

HON. ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.  The Bill did not prescribe a criminal sanction, it merely outlawed.  When it was drafted, we were very cautious because it would mean that we would send to jail a lot of young adults.  So, the approach was we will outlaw but there was no criminal sanction that was inserted into the Bill.  I thank you.

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