Senators have called for tougher enforcement of laws against child marriages and teenage pregnancies after warning that the vice continues to rob thousands of girls of opportunities, despite constitutional protections.
The 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.
Senators were debating a motion tabled by senator Morgen Chakabuda.
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; that child must be thinking of how she can solve maths,” she said.
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 daughters as a way of escaping economic hardship.
“Without education, it is poverty for life because education helps one to get employed or be self-employed,” she said.
Mwanza urged authorities to arrest those involved in child marriages and called for greater support for affected girls to continue their education.
She also appealed for school feeding programmes to help reduce the vulnerability of learners from impoverished households.
Senator Robson Mavenyengwa described child marriage as “a constitutional crisis, a human rights violation and a direct assault on the future of Zimbabwe.”
He said while the country’s constitution and the Marriages Act prohibit marriage for anyone under the age of 18, child marriages remained prevalent.
“Let us be clear from the outset, child marriage is illegal in Zimbabwe. Anyone under the age of 18 cannot get married,” said Mavenyengwa.
He argued that the challenge was not a lack of laws but weak implementation and enforcement.
“Despite this 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,” he said.
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, a teacher, a lawyer and a leader,” he said.
He called for stronger 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 challenged attempts to justify child marriages 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,” Mlotshwa said.
She also condemned adults who target underage girls, saying society had normalised behaviour that should be strongly rejected.
“It is wrong and we must condemn it at every level possible,” she said. Mlotshwa identified poverty as a major driver of child marriage but argued that marrying off girls only perpetuates hardship across generations.
“Child marriage does not solve poverty; it reproduces poverty,” she said.
(Read full article on www.standard.co.zw)