The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
MANICALAND has recorded the fourth highest number of child marriages in the country, with 36 percent of girls and 3.4 percent of boys getting married at a young age, improving slightly from its previous record of being the leading province in the country.
While the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (ZimStat) confirms that levels of child marriages remain very high in Zimbabwe and Manicaland in particular, it also states in its most recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICs) that the province has been superseded by Mashonaland Central, East and West provinces.
Mashonaland Central has the highest record, with 49.5 percent girls and 6.7 percent boys getting married before reaching 18 years.
Harare has the lowest prevalence with 21.7 percent girls and 2.7 percent boys married off before 18. Matabeleland South has 22.2 percent and 1.7 percent respectively.
According to the cluster survey, one in three Zimbabwean minor girls (32.6 percent) and four percent boys are getting married before the age of 18.
Commenting on the statistics at the recently held community dialogue in Marange, Zimbabwe Gender Commission’s Commissioner Tsungirirayi Hungwe-Chimbunde said it is quite worrisome to note that the situation has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic and other humanitarian situations.
“During the lockdown period, we witnessed cases of child marriages escalating. A lot of young girls fell pregnant and were married off before the age of 18, and it is quite worrisome. Manicaland was not an exception as it sparked dialogue on child marriages because of the Anna Machaya case,” she said.
Commissioner Hungwe-Chimbunde said the province still has a long way to go in combating child marriages as it is a haven of some apostolic sects that marry off underage girls.
She also said the alignment of laws will help in fighting child marriages.
“ZGC has made several recommendations to the Parliament of Zimbabwe to eliminate all harmful practises, and chief among them is addressing the current contradictions in the legislative regime regarding marriages of young persons, sleeping with minors and the harmonisation of marriage laws,” she said.
She said if the laws are aligned, perpetrators will be brought to book.
Addressing the Mafararikwa villagers, Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Nokhutula Matsikenyeri said Government noted with great concern the increase of cases of gender based violence, particularly child marriages, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The scourge of child marriages continues to decimate our social fabric in Manicaland. It is a violation of children’s rights. It affects girls disproportionately and impendes their full enjoyment of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and in various international human rights instruments that Zimbabwe has ratified,” she said.
She further stated that Government and various development partners is fighting child marriages.
The community dialogues were attended by Marange villagers who were educated on the dangers of child marriages.
