BY NHAU MANGIRAZI
THE Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) yesterday called for an end to ‘‘primitive forced marriages’’ on minors to protect the girl child.
This follows a public outcry over the alleged forced marriage of a 15-year-old girl to a Chinese national in Sanyati, Mashonaland West province.
ZGC chief executive Virginia Muwanigwa said the arrest of offenders without punitive conviction was regrettable.
‘‘We must put to an end other forms of child sexual and economic abuse that lies in gender inequality that undervalues girls,’’ Muwanigwa said in a statement.
‘‘Forced marriages are unacceptable and perpetrators must be punished.”
The need to end child marriages came to light recently following the death of 14-year-old Memory Machaya who died at childbirth at a Johanne Masowe shrine in Marange in July.
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