MRS.

ZEMURA:
Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me this opportunity to support
this motion on child marriages whereby children are married before
they attain the legal age of majority. I want to thank Hon. Maondera
and his seconder by Hon. Majome.
Here in Zimbabwe, we talk about the fact that people should be
accorded their human rights. I think children should also be
accorded their human rights. It is amazing that adults are the very
people who violate childrens rights. After we violate their rights as
adults, we dump them and leave them to fend for themselves and
their offspring. Yes, we can push for legislation to be enacted to deal
with those who will have violated the rights of children but we
should change our mindset and also our behaviour.
My plea is that these adult men who will have committed such acts
should be brought to book. We should enact legislation and
penalties that are deterrent to would-be offenders. Most of these
men have families which they are responsible for and they do not
see the other child next door as their own children. If we look at
what is happening today, we have organisations and churches that
have people who violate these laws because they know that they
cannot be arrested. If only there was legislation in place made much
stiffer, it would work.
As Members of Parliament, we know what is happening in our
constituencies. Children are being abused by a man who stays next
door and the child is left to fend for herself. A child who is young
does not know that she has to go and sue for maintenance. That
child cannot go and report the case to the police. It then becomes a
burden of the parent to go and look after that child and also the
child of the victim.
I have also realised that there are some men who behave as if they
do not have brains because most children who are subjected to such
treatment are not being violated against by their age mates but by
these adult men. I think stiffer penalties should be applied to deal
with those who will have violated the rights of children. We need
legislation that says, if a man violates the rights of a child who is
below the age of majority, they should be brought to book. If this is
done people will know that once I do this, I can be reported and
imprisoned.
A 13 year old girl is a child despite her physical appearance. People
should not take a 13 year old girl as an adult. Even if ones birth
certificate says the child is 17 and a half years old and that child is
violated against, that perpetrator should be arrested. If children who
are below the legal age of majority, which is 18 years are

impregnated, the perpetrators must be arrested because these

children are still young and cannot make informed decisions and
also their bodies are not prepared to carry the gestation period of a
pregnant woman. Some are completely destroyed because they can
encounter a situation whereby they are unable to bear children all
their lives.
I know there are churches that say a child can be married even at
14 years. We all know those churches and as Members of
Parliament, we should take action against such churches. We should
go to those churches and inform them that, if such an act happens
amongst thier congregation, they can be arrested. We can monitor
this because their children who are being taken are our children and
we know that these children are below the legal age of majority.
They are in a polygamous marriage whereby they are five or six and
living with an elderly man who is unable to support them. This is
painful Mr. Speaker, even if you get to such an area, as mothers it
really pains us. These children do not know what they are getting
into by getting married to those elderly men.
So where we can intervene, let us intervene and take action. This
has been happening for so many years and now, it is being brought
up and it has been happening all this time and we have been quiet.
I want to thank the mover and the seconder who raised this motion.
In the area where I stay, I have children that are 14 years and are
married. They are bearing children whilst they are still young. We
want to bring an end to this. If the law says a child should be
married at 18 years, these elderly men should allow children to grow
up and reach 18 years before they are married. At 16 years of age, a
child is not yet mature. That child cannot make informed decisions
because even at school, they fail to pass O level. If they cannot
pass O level, can they then be able to pass the degree of running a
home?
We should allow these children to grow up and be given a chance to
live their lives. We want this motion to be acted upon. The men that
we stay with, it means they even lust after their own children in the
homes because if they can lust after a neighbours child who is 14
years, it means that even in his own house, the man will lust after
his 14 year old daughter.
Mr. Speaker, there are so many women in Zimbabwe whose ages
qualify them for marriage age. Even widows and single women are
available and yet men are marrying young girls who have not even
reached puberty age. What we want to say is that we need to
advertise that, no man will be allowed to marry a child under the
age of 18. The law says that the legal age of majority is 18; so we
should allow our children to enjoy their rights.

Mr. Speaker, when this motion was raised by Hon. Maondera and
Hon. Majome, I realised that it is us women who are not taking
action to get into the streets demonstrate against these men and
churches that are promoting such behaviour thereby destroying the
lives of children. We are told the girl child does not want to go to
school. How can these children go to school yet they are being used
by these elderly men? For a child to get pregnant, we do not know
where it would have started from. These men have a lot of ways of
making sure the child does not get pregnant. What we want now is
for the Government to enact a law with immediate effect.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to talk to all the women in the rural areas
who are struggling to fend for their children through tilling the land.
The Government should assist on this. We have been blamed as
women and also, there is talk of women and the girl child. We want
to expose the women who violate the lives of the young children.
This should be broadcast in the media. We want adult men to marry
adult women and not that adult men should marry young girls.
We have statistics of school drop outs, especially girls. I do not want
my daughter to become a school dropout and even the men here do
not want their children to be taken into marriage at that tender age.
We want children go to school, be educated and get married in the
proper way. There is an English saying that says, do unto others as
you would want them to do unto you. So, if I do not want my child
to be damaged at 14, why should I go and damage my neighbours
child who is 14. I think there are some men who do not seem to be
sane enough and hence, we need that law to arrest such men. They
should be brought to book. There are no women who have
impregnated other women but there are men who are impregnating
young girls.
I want to thank you Mr. Speaker, the motion that has been raised by
Hon. Maondera. That motion really pains us. You find that a child is a
head girl in form one and at the end of the year, you find the child is
pregnant. The potential of taking that child to school is there but a
childs life is destroyed by an elderly man. It is better for the girl to
go and give birth whilst the perpetrator is in jail.
Mr. Speaker, the women are the poorest and they are the poorest. I
am sure you can also see that. If a man will not agree to take a child
who is 14 that he would have impregnated and begin to say, I have
a wife, no one wants to look after the child. Mr. Speaker, this law
should be enacted promptly. I thank you.