… As child marriages continue to escalate
Tinaani Nyabereka
Maboleni – The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) last week engaged Maboleni community in Lower Gwelo, where it conducted a stakeholders’ inquiry on sexual exploitation issues affecting the area.
The engagement also focused on abuse of young girls including those in marriages.
For many years, cases of sexual exploitation have been experienced and gone unreported in the country due to fear and lack of strong legal frameworks both at workplaces and the community, a move which has led to some perpetrators going unpunished and victims suffering in silence.
Speaking at the event, ZGC vice chairperson Obert Matshalaga said purpose of the inquiry was informed by the death of a 15 year- old Anna Machaya in July last year whilst giving birth at an Apostolic church shrine in Marange and was buried secretly at the shrine without the consent of her parents and proper burial procedures.
“The national inquiry is coming against a background of high prevalence of child marriages, sexual exploitation and abuse of young girls in the country, particularly within the Apostolic sect which is a cause for great concern for the commission.
“This inquiry is a milestone step towards pooling efforts that will immensely contribute to the eradication of child marriages and sexual exploitation of young girls. Through this process, we will be hearing submissions from members of the public on the extent of the problem in their communities,” he said.
Matshalaga further said the inquiry which started in Harare early this year will be shared across various media channels with the outcome to be presented to Parliament.
“The outcome of this public inquiry will be a report directed to Parliament and other duty bearers for implementation in terms of Section 7 of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission Act (Chapter 10:31) where the report will give recommendations on both public, legal interventions and other practical measures to curb child marriages,” he said.
Zimbabwe Statistic Agency (Zimstat) however confirmed that the levels of child marriages remain unacceptably high in Zimbabwe as shown by the 2019 multiple indicator cluster survey results.
According to the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICs), 32.6 percent of girls were married before the age of 18 with Midlands province statistics standing at 30.4 percent out of the national average of 32.6 percent.
Further analysis however revealed a rural-urban divide in child marriages where rural girls are twice more likely to be married before the age of 18 than their urban counterparts.
Matsalaga further highlighted that poverty, poor economic situation, social media, peer pressure and child-headed families are some of the major causes of child marriages.
“Poverty, economic challenges and peer pressure are the leading factors of child marriages. The Covid-19 pandemic is also among other humanitarian situations which worsened the situation as during the lockdown period cases of child marriages escalated.
“This inquiry is supported financially and technically by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nation Women and under the spotlight initiative which is a global partnership to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls being funded by the European Union (EU),” he added.
A Maboleni villager Ronald Moyo said cases of child marriages were being fuelled by illegal mining activities in the area as young girls were being lured by money and goodies.
“The girl child is in trouble. Illegal gold miners are using money and goodies to capture young girls.
Due to poverty and hunger, young girls can’t resist.
“Early child pregnancies are the order of the day in our community, we tried to engage the police as a community but it’s not working,” Moyo said.
Meanwhile government last week pledged to ensure safe working spaces for workers and to mitigate sexual harassment at work.
Public Service and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima launched the Public Service Sexual Harassment Policy 2022 in Harare as the country was experiencing a spike in sexual harassment cases at workplaces.
The development however resulted in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) calling on corporates to eliminate sexual harassment and gender-based violence at work.
“For many years, sexual harassment in the workplace has been experienced but there was no specific policy or guidelines to prevent this vice. Some perpetrators went unpunished and victims suffered in silence,” Mavima said.
