The move by the government to correct the age of consent and criminal liability clauses in the criminal code must be applauded as the right step towards eradication of child marriages and the rampant sexual abuse of minors in Zimbabwe.
On Friday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa used the Presidential Powers Act (Temporary Measures) (Criminal Laws) (Protection of Children and Young Persons) Regulations, 2024 to reinstate the age of consent after a legal loophole that allowed paedophiles to have sex with girls below the age of 18 without consequences since May last year.
The government's intervention means that anyone who has sex with a person below 18 can be jailed for up to 10 years. The temporary regulations will last for six months to give the authorities time to pass new laws to amend the criminal code.
Two years ago the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) struck down sections of the criminal code on sexual crimes with the expectation that new provisions that include all children under 18 would be covered.
The ConCourt made the ruling in a case brought by former child brides Diana Kwenda and Loveness Mudzuru who wanted the laws to be strengthened to protect children that were being forced into early marriages, especially by certain religious groups.
In that ruling the legislature was given 12 months to amend the laws, but the window closed in May 2023 without any action taken and this inadvertently made 13 years the age of sexual consent in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has a child marriages crisis that needs more than strong regulations to solve.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency preliminary 2022 census report on fertility, 133 455 women aged between 20 and 24 years, representing 16.2% of the total, were married before attaining the age of 18.
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The proportion was higher at 22.7% in rural areas as compared to 7.2% in urban areas, the report said.
A report by the United Nations Population Fund released last year said 350 000 girls aged between 10 and 19 fell pregnant between 2019 and 2022.
The National Assessment of Adolescent Pregnancies in Zimbabwe (2023) released in June last year that was funded by the United Nations said of the 1.7 million antenatal care bookings recorded between 2019 and 2022, 358 000 were of girls aged between 10 years and 19 years.
Now that measures have been put in place to ensure that there is no ambiguity about the age of consent, the law enforcement agencies no longer have an excuse to let paedophiles and perverts remain on the prowl for vulnerable children that they force into so-called marriages.
