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Chief Charumbira tears into civic society groups

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Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira has accused civic society groups of blaming cultural beliefs for fuelling child marriages.

Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira has accused civic society groups of blaming cultural beliefs for fuelling child marriages.

By Phyllis Mbanje

Harmful cultural practices have been cited in many researches done by civic society organisations as the major driver of child marriages, but Charumbira said most local cultural practices discouraged child marriages.

Speaking during a breakfast meeting on improving the quality of social service delivery to vulnerable groups in Harare last week, Charumbira said it was wrong to blame culture which was more “elaborate” than what many perceived it to be.

“Let us not blame culture for this bad practice. Those people we read about in the newspapers are the criminals who should take the blame,” he said.

He also tore into the civic societies for being after “donor funds” and not the real issues on the ground. “These organisations are only interested in pitching their proposals to get donor funds and they continue to say culture is behind child marriage,” he said.

His comments followed reports that some harmful cultural practices were part of the main drivers that perpetuated the social scourge which has become an issue in most countries, Zimbabwe included.

“In our culture it takes a lot of time to assess a girl before she is married and by the time they are done with her she will be over 18 years,” he said.

The issue of child marriages has been in the spotlight over the past weeks following statements attributed to Prosecutor-General Johannes Tomana where he was quoted as suggesting that 12-year-olds could legally consent to sex and marriage.

Tomana has since denied reports saying he was misquoted, but some politicians and civic society groups were piling pressure for him to resign from his post.