The ManicaPost
Wendy Nyakurerwa-Matinde
A YOUNG girl is dead and she is not coming back.
Her life, full of potential, was cut short almost five months ago when she died during childbirth — a colossal responsibility that had been thrust upon her prematurely.
After being forced out of school while doing her Form One in order to get married to Hatirarame Momberume, 14-year-old Anna Machaya breathed her last as she gave birth to a baby boy at a Johanne Marange shrine in Marange, right here in Manicaland.
But the journey towards ‘killing’ her had started several moons before when her parents married her off.
One could say her parents failed her the moment they agreed to her ‘marriage’. Society also failed her as neighbours unashamedly looked the other way as Momberume took her in as his wife.
Then there was the church — speaking so strongly against child marriages when addressing the media, but allowing one of their own to get away with murder, literally.
Now, Anna’s son will grow up without a mother because he came into this world as she grotesquely exited it.
The remains of her body are allegedly laying in some grave — probably a shallow one — at the Mafararikwa Shrine.
While Anna’s family has insisted that she was buried at the church’s shrine and that they will fight tooth and nail to get her body exhumed so that she can be given a decent burial, the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church claims this is not true.
Perhaps the only consolation in all of this is that Momberume is languishing in remand prison as the police conduct their investigations.
Momberume initially faced charges of rape and being intimate with a minor before they were upgraded to include murder as investigations into Anna’s death gathered steam.
Her parents, on the other hand, are out on bail as they await trial in January.
They are being charged with obstructing the course of justice after they allegedly availed 22-year-old Memory Machaya’s identity document in a bid to make law enforcement agents believe that their daughter was a major when she got married.
As the world commemorates the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence from November 25 until December 10, it is an opportune time to remember that justice for Anna is still pending.
The 2021 theme for the 16 Days is ‘Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!’
This comes as the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ), a network of women’s rights activists and organisations has amplified its voice in the fight against GBV.
“Gender Based Violence comes in various forms, including sexual, physical and emotional abuse, among other forms. We will never tire in advocating for the eradication of all forms of violence against women,” said Mrs Selina Marewangepo, WCoZ Mutare Chapter chairperson.
“Sadly, there is one common factor on almost all cases of GBV. It seems like there is always great hesitancy to report the cases to the police, especially when it comes to child marriages. Victims of GBV need to speak out, that is the only way they can receive the necessary support,” she said.
Mrs Marewangepo added that child marriages is one form of GBV that is mainly affecting the girl child.
“Child marriages should be called rape because that’s exactly what it is. A child simply cannot consent to marriage. We call for stiff penalties for perpetrators of GBV,” she said.
A landmark 2016 Constitutional Court ruling declared child marriages unconstitutional and set 18 years as the minimum age to consent to marriage but this doesn’t seem to deter would-be offenders as they continue to abuse young girls in the name of marriage, with the victims’ parents or guardians facilitating these ‘marriages’.
While child marriages occur in every region across the world and is practiced across cultures and religions, it turns out Manicaland — home to many apostolic churches — is one of the epicentres of the plague which is fuelled by harmful traditional and religious practices.
Between March 2020 and January 2021 alone, 907 of the province’s girls below 18 fell pregnant and were married off.
Chipinge was the hardest hit district, while Mutare and Buhera came second and third respectively.
The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises and other stakeholders, among them the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, is in the process of preparing to hold a provincial community dialogue on ending child marriages in Manicaland.
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