Zimbabwe to deal with the issue of child marriages before the end of next month

HON. GONESE: My supplementary question to the Hon. Minister is that yes, I understand according to what he says its work in progress. Can he please inform the nation and this august House firstly as to when we are likely to see those amendments seeing the light of the day because this is an issue which has been with us since the enactment of the Constitution but more particularly, since the Constitutional Court judgement which clearly defined the legal position that marriage can only be entered into by people who are above the age of eighteen.

Secondly, can the Hon. Minister indicate to us what the Government thinking is relating to that age of consent because at present it is sixteen? We are in the dark as to what the Government’s position is and we are all aware that there are so many people who are opposed to this amendment because they are predators. The biggest problem that we are confronted with is older men who indulge in sexual intercourse with young girls, which is where the problem mainly lies. Most of the predators are not comfortable with the raising of the age of consent because that will actually increase the number of criminal cases that will be before our courts where girls are between the ages of 16 and 18.

HON. ZIYAMBI: I want to thank Hon. Gonese Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important to separate issues of marriage and age of consent.  There is nowhere in the world where the age of consent to sexual intercourse is 18 years.  In any event, it is very difficult to stop those teenagers from engaging in sex.  What we are doing is; we need to separate issues of marriages that come with certain responsibilities with an age where a teenager can consent voluntarily to an act.

I know that already in our Act we have offences whereby if you have sexual intercourse with a young adult – it is statutory rape. So that is covered but what I was referring to is to streamline it and ensure that it becomes clear rather than how it is currently couched.  We have outlawed marriages of anyone below 18 but if we have two young teenagers who are below 18, we cannot criminalise if they engage in sexual intercourse.  My plea is, it is work in progress; we want to streamline it and ensure that we bring it here and have a debate on how we can now look at the age of consent.  I know Hon. Gonese is very much aware that you can have a driver’s licence at 16, so you must also appreciate that on one hand you must say that somebody is responsible for his/her actions when he/she is driving at 16.  On the other hand, you say he/she is not responsible for his/her actions in engaging in sexual intercourse – it is contradictory.  So we must separate issues of marriage which we said is 18 and it comes with certain responsibilities.  Those who want to be married must wait until they are over 18 but there are certain things that we cannot control.  More-so at 16, we agree that you can drive but if you have an accident, what do we say?  I thank you.

HON. GONESE:  On a point of clarification Hon. Speaker!  If I heard the Hon. Minister correctly, he said that in terms of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act, where a person has sexual intercourse with a young adult, that is statutory rape and I think those were his words.  If he can clarify what he means by that because an adult is someone above the age of 18 and certainly, if you have sexual intercourse with anyone above the age of 18 with that person’s consent, it cannot be statutory rape.  May the Hon. Minister clarify what he means by that because he said young adult then that would be statutory rape.

HON. ZIYAMBI:  Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. It is a very academic question which the Hon. Member, being my learned friend, knows the answer to.  I thank you.

Continued next page

(101 VIEWS)