Zimbabwe Parliament calls for criminalisation of child marriages as 4 500 are forced out of primary school in one year

What we now need to do, particularly the men in this House is to be at the forefront of fighting this scourge.  As you know Mr. Speaker, if we go back in history, we know the evils of the slave trade.  At the time, the perpetrators were the whites who were taking people from Africa to the Americas as part of that slave trade.  But for that slave trade to be abolished, the person who was at the forefront of the abolition was William Wilberforce who was not a slave himself and who was not directly a victim but who realised that this was an evil practice.  He was at the forefront for the abolition of the slave trade.  By the same token, it is my respectful submission that the majority of the perpetrators are us men.  We have to acknowledge and accept the fact because the facts speak for themselves even from the statistics which I have given.  Apart from those statistics, it is very clear that most of the victims of child marriage are girls.  I believe that it is incumbent upon us the male folk to be champions in leading this crusade for the eradication of child marriage and we have to do that both in this House and in our constituencies.  So that is the first point I would like to make Mr. Speaker, that we must be at the forefront so that we protect the major victims who as I have already indicated are the girl children.

The second point that I would like to make Mr. Speaker Sir, is that we all celebrated when the Constitutional Court in the celebrated case of Mudzuru and another versus the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and another, when the highest court in the land made a pronouncement that child marriage was unconstitutional.  We all ululated and we all clapped our hands but at the end of the day, that judgement is simply a declaratory.  It simply restates what is in the Constitution but it does not deal with the real issue, which is the criminalisation of child marriage.  Without that criminalisation and without criminal penalties, the challenge that remains with us is that it simply becomes a judgement which is not being enforced.  Because, at the end of the day, nothing is happening to those people who are abusing the young girls and the young boys.

I want to say Mr. Speaker, that when you are dealing with the issue of child marriage, it is not just abuse; it is actually a violation of human rights.  It is a violation of the fundamental rights of those children.  I think we are all in agreement, at least everyone who is rationale agrees that when you have got somebody who is below the age of 18, that person is a child.

Our Constitution is very clear; anyone below the age of 18 is still a child.  You know all the debates that have taken place; it is quite clear that those people are not yet mature enough to found a family.  We all agree that when we are dealing with children of that tender age, their place is in the classroom.  They must be at school, not in marriage because they are not able to make the fundamental decisions to run a family.

Going to the issue of the SADC Model Law, I would like to advise all Hon. Members that on 20th October, 2016, e-mails were send to all Hon. Members of Parliament.  For those who may not be aware, Parliament administration has opened e-mails for all of us and I think that all Hon. Members were advised. They used your surname and the initial to open those e-mails. The SADC Model Law was forwarded to all our e-mails on 20th October, 2016.  Therefore, I would like to urge all Hon. Members to check their e-mails.  Unfortunately, Parliament administration was not able to make copies for all of us.  I have brought my own copy.

Hon. Gonese showed Hon. Members his copy.

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