THE Senate has called for tough enforcement of laws against child marriage and teenage pregnancy, warning that the practices continue to rob thousands of girls of education, health and economic opportunities despite constitutional protections.
Debating a motion tabled by Senator Morgen Chakabuda, legislators described child marriage as a national crisis driven by poverty, weak law enforcement, harmful cultural practices and the exploitation of vulnerable girls by adults.
Contributing to the debate, Senator Itayi Mwanza said children should be focusing on their education rather than marriage and parenthood.
“A child at the age of 14 must not be thinking about where she will get relish or nappies,” she said.
“That child must be thinking about how she can solve a mathematics problem.”
Mwanza argued that poverty was pushing some girls into relationships with older men who provide money and basic necessities, while some families viewed marrying off their daughters as a way of escaping economic hardship.
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“Without education, it is poverty for life because education helps one to become employed or self-employed,” she said.
She urged authorities to arrest those involved in child marriage and called for greater support for affected girls to continue their education.
Mwanza appealed for the expansion of school-feeding programmes to reduce the vulnerability of learners from impoverished households.
Supporting the motion, Senator Robson Mavenyengwa described child marriage as “a constitutional crisis, a human rights violation and a direct assault on the future of Zimbabwe”.
He noted that while Zimbabwe’s Constitution and the Marriages Act prohibit marriage for anyone under the age of 18, child marriages remain prevalent.
“Let us be clear from the outset: child marriage is illegal in Zimbabwe. Anyone under the age of 18 cannot get married,” Mavenyengwa said.
He argued that the challenge was not a lack of legislation, but weak implementation and enforcement.
“Despite the clarity in our laws, one in every three girls in Zimbabwe is married before the age of 18. This is not a legal gap; this is a failure of enforcement.”
Mavenyengwa said poverty, lack of education, food insecurity and harmful cultural practices continued to expose girls to exploitation, resulting in school dropouts, health complications and lifelong dependence.
“When a girl child is married, we do not just lose a learner; we lose a future nurse, teacher, lawyer or leader,” he said.
He called for strong law enforcement, increased public awareness campaigns, greater support for girls to remain in school and adequate funding for programmes aimed at ending child marriage.
Senator Nonhlanhla Mlotshwa said the issue went beyond marriage and pregnancy and was fundamentally about protecting Zimbabwe’s future.
“Every time a child is forced into marriage, Zimbabwe loses. Every time a girl drops out of school because of pregnancy, Zimbabwe loses,” she said.
Mlotshwa challenged attempts to justify child marriage on cultural or religious grounds, insisting that constitutional rights must take precedence.
“Culture cannot override constitutional rights. Culture cannot override human dignity. Culture cannot override the rights of children,” she said.
She condemned adults who target underage girls, saying society normalised behaviour that should be firmly rejected.
“It is wrong and we must condemn it at every level possible.”
Mlotshwa identified poverty as a major driver of child marriage, but argued that marrying off girls perpetuates hardship across generations.
“Child marriage does not solve poverty; it reproduces poverty,” she said, describing education as the most effective tool for preventing child marriage and teenage pregnancy, at the same time urging government to strengthen programmes that keep girls in school.
The senator warned that many teenage pregnancies involved criminal exploitation by adults rather than consensual relationships between minors.
“Many are criminal matters. Many involve violation of children’s rights,” she said, calling on law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate such cases.
She further highlighted the health and psychological consequences faced by young mothers, including pregnancy complications, trauma, anxiety and depression and called for stronger health and mental health support services.
Concluding her contribution, Mlotshwa said Zimbabwe’s greatest resource was its children and urged Parliament to act decisively.
“There can be no prosperous Zimbabwe built on broken childhoods.
“There can be no upper-middle-income economy built on girls forced out of classrooms.
“There can be no national development while children are raising children.”
Winding up the debate, Chakabuda thanked senators for their contributions and expressed hope that they will take the lessons from the discussion back to their constituencies.
The motion, which was subsequently adopted by the House, condemned child marriages and teenage pregnancies, called on the ministries of Primary and Secondary Education, and Health and Child Care to intensify awareness campaigns, and advocated stiff penalties for perpetrators above the legal age of majority.