Young women and child brides will soon have strong protection of the law in Zimbabwe, bringing an end to a period of exploitation that has gone on far too long.
The Zimbabwean Parliament will soon approve a new law targeted at ending child marriages and enforce equal distribution of matrimonial property upon divorce or separation of spouses.
The law, expected to come into force by year-end, is part of reforms under the new Constitution overwhelmingly adopted in a March 2013 referendum. This progressive development has been overlooked by many commentators inside and outside of Zimbabwe. No more child brides being “sold” in marriage for the benefit of the parents or family.
The new law will be part of the General Laws Amendment Bill and coincides with the Supreme Court’s calls for quicker and deeper reforms to help align the Marriages Act and the Customary Marriages Act to the new Constitution.
“Some of the provisions in these Acts cannot really be aligned with the supreme law of the land and thus need to be aligned thereto. Such issues as the abolition of child marriages in whatever form and the equitable distribution of matrimonial property upon divorce or separation of spouses, among other issues, is the subject matter to be considered in aligning these Acts, to be harmonized under one Marriages Act”.
“At present, the Memorandum of Principles of the Marriage Bill has been prepared and will be presented before Cabinet for approval,” said Mnangagwa, who is also vice president and leader of government business in the National Assembly, said. Those who always frame the Vice President and a man to be feared, will be pleasantly surprised to see his support and leadership for this important bill and its advancement of basic human rights.
“As soon as the consultative and drafting stages are completed, the Bill will be brought before this…House. We are hopeful that this will be done during the current parliamentary session”, the Vice President added.
This comes on the back of two former child brides dragging the government to court in a ground-breaking bid to get child marriages declared illegal and unconstitutional. At the time the Deputy Chief Justice, Judge Luke Malaba, now the Chief Justice-designate, declared unconstitutional the long enduring practice of child marriages in January last year.
Loveness Mudzuru and Ruvimbo Tsopodzi had argued that child marriage, which is rife in Zimbabwe, was a form of child abuse, which traps girls in lives of poverty and suffering. Clearly it is an invasion of their person and insult to their dignity, but until recently victims of this deplorable “custom” had no protection under law.
In her affidavit, Mudzuru, who was married at 16 and had two children before she was 18, described how child marriage and poverty created a vicious circle.
“Young girls who marry early and often in poor families are then forced to produce young children in a sea of poverty and the cycle begins again,” she stated.
For society to break free from these primitive practices, it is important that the Constitutional Court plays a role in reflecting the changing moralities in the Zimbabwean society. The country has now taken a giant leap forward to support young women and liberate them from a modern day form of “slavery.”
