This issue of child marriage does not only affect Zimbabwe, it affects Africa, it affects the whole world, but the extent to which it affects the different countries is how the particular governments are handling the issue. So, if we domesticate this model law and align the laws so that anyone found marrying a girl under the age of 18 is reprimanded in a very severe manner, that will deter anybody else from marrying a girl child. I also find the term of marrying a child not the right term. This child is not being married, this child is actually being raped because she does not know and does not understand what is going on.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to give an example of what I am talking about when I say a girl child is being raped. In Bulawayo, there is a safe house where girl children are taken and being mothered. Their ages range from between 9 to 11 years. There are places here in Harare too that are doing this, but anyway, I will go back to the safe house in Bulawayo. It is called the Margaret Jones House.
In this home there are these little girls that are being looked after and there are two women that are employed as mothers that were looking after these children. It was found that these mothers were abusing these children. They could not understand why these children were behaving in the manner they were behaving. They felt that they were spoilt because they had been taken into this home. So the proprietor of this home decided to have a team building workshop so that these women could understand the plight that these children were in.
When they held this workshop, on the second day when presentations were being given of similar situations, these two mothers broke down in tears – Hon. Members, I think this is important. Can you please listen? Mr. Speaker Sir, when the proprietor asked…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members. Let us have less noise in the House.
HON. TOFFA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for your protection. 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. 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. So you can see, Mr. Speaker Sir, when I say it is important to protect the girl child, at least give her the opportunity to reach her potential.
In other countries such as Malawi and Ghana, they have started activating and actioning this model law. For example, Malawi annulled 300 marriages in February last year and they did not only just annul the marriages, they made sure that they had a support programme where these girls were taken back to school by Government. The children that they had mothered and their mothers; the families that they come from were given support to look after these children.
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