A woman who was abusing girls at a safe house in Bulawayo later confessed to having been abused herself at the age of 11 and being forced to marry the person who had abused her.
Bulawayo legislator Jasmine Toffa said the woman confessed after the owner of the safe-house, Margaret Jones House, held a team-building workshop after receiving reports that two women who worked for her were abusing girls aged between nine and 11.
She said on the second day of the workshop the two women broke down in tears after presentations.
“When these women were asked why they were crying, one of the women stood up and said as a girl she was raped at the age of 11 years old and she knew who had actually raped her,” Toffa said in her contribution to the debate urging Zimbabwe to adopt the Southern African Development Community model law on the eradication of child marriages.
“ When she reported the matter to her parents, they called the man that had raped her and asked him what had happened. When they took him to task about what he had done, the family then said, now that you have deflowered this girl, you may now take her, she is your wife.
“This girl was taken at the age of 11 as a wife and as a grown woman she says this man actually raped me every day of my life. I have three children and these children, I am sorry to say, I do not love them and I do not love this man.
“My friends that I was in school with have become doctors, others are engineers, others are nurses and I used to take number one in my class in school,” the woman said.
Toffa said it was, therefore, crucial for Zimbabwe to adopt the law because by protecting and educating the girl-child Zimbabwe would be building a nation.
Full contribution
HON. TOFFA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for affording me this opportunity to contribute to this very important motion. Mr. Speaker Sir, it is very important that this model law, the SADC PF model law, is domesticated. I cannot find words to actually emphasise the importance because if we do not take this model law seriously, we are actually contributing to the detriment of our economy. The girl child is very important and the girl child, if educated and given the opportunity to go through her schooling, to go and get to the age of majority, that is 18 and even further and further her education and become that which she desires to be, our country, our nation and the world over will benefit a lot.
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