BINGA district in Matabeleland North province faces a high prevalence of child marriages despite the country’s attempts to eradicate the vice through ratification of several international protocols on children rights. By NQOBANI NDLOVU
Zimbabwe has ratified several conventions aimed at ending child marriages such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and the 2008 African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
In 2016, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court outlawed child marriages.
The ruling includes marriages under the Customary Marriages Act, which previously had no minimum age restrictions.
However, the ruling has done little to eradicate the vice, where customary law has been allowed to override formal law in Binga, one of the country’s most underdeveloped provinces.
In a recent interview, Binga district administrator Lydia Banda-Ndete said child marriages were giving them headaches, despite several awareness campaigns.
“It is a very big challenge in the district. High poverty levels are to blame for this practice, according to our research. A lot of pregnant women at our maternity rooms are teenage children, some as young as 14,” Banda-Ndete said.
“We have been working very hard with the traditional leaders in the communities to reverse the practice, but with little success. This, however, does not mean that we are sitting back, but we will continue fighting this vice,” she said.
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Zimbabwe has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriages by 2030, in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
According to United Nations Fund for Population Activities, globally, one in every five girls is married, or enters into a union, before reaching the age of 18 years.
According to government statistical agency, ZimStats, more than 32% of girls are married before the age of 18 and 12% are married before the age of 15.
