Girls Certainly Brides In Zimbabwe.

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 A recent publication by the biggest press outlet in Zimbabwe, the Herald -  revealed that 600 pregnancies were recorded in 6 months - of minor children.

Image: News headline. The Herald.



 This comes after the parliament is holding public consultations to raise the legal age of consent to 18 in the Protection of Children Bill which will amend the Criminal Codification Act. The Act states that the age of consent is 18. The President, Dr. E. Mnangagwa had earlier in the year set a Statutory Instrument to set this age at 18 and now this new Bill will amend the Act to set the age at 18, from 16. On the  other hand, the new Marriage Act outlawed the marriage of persons below the age of 18. It is therefore shocking to see that there is a big gap between the policies set by the government and what the people are  actually doing. This is not so surprising. Zimbabwe has a good record of setting the right policies and being progressive, to some extent, but very poor in enforcing those laws. Any Zimbabwean will tell that there are a lot of adults who are marrying under age children and impregnating minors. The most well known perpetrators are the Apostolic sect worshippers who have this practice of marrying off their children young. African culture also come into play, with many people who are i rural areas - of which 60% of the population is based - regard marrying minors as a good achievement.. Coupled with a lot of economic challenges the country is facing school dropouts are rising and many adolescent children will escape this poverty by getting into marriages. It is a sad state of affairs that will continue to make headlines until the Zimbabwean government and its partner start to address this issue from a community level.

UNFPA Zimbabwe in its National Fertility Study also revealed some startling facts around this issue but no changes are made and we keep on writing about these issues to no avail. We start to question whether policy makers are serious about change or they just set these policies for show.

Let me know what you think.

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