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The United Nations in Zimbabwe and the Freedom of Rights Under Sovereign (FORUS) party have noted with deep concern and condemned strongly the surrounding circumstances leading to the untimely death of 14-year-old Memory Machaya from Marange, who died while giving birth at an apostolic sect shrine.
On its part, the UN said it was disturbing to see reports of the sexual violation of under-aged girls, including early forced child marriages continue to surface on a sad note. They said statistics that one in three girls in Zimbabwe will be married before the age of 18 years is also not acceptable.
“The current trend of unresolved cases of violence against women and girls in Zimbabwe, including marriages of minors cannot continue with impunity. All forms of violence and early forced marriages severely affect the mental and physical health of girls and is a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which Zimbabwe is a signatory. The United Nations welcomes the investigations announced by the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Gender Commission into the death of Memory Machaya and look forward to the perpetrators being brought to justice.
“Efforts by the Government, civil society and faith-based organizations and development partners, including the Spotlight Initiative, a partnership between the UN and the European Union must be strengthened to end violence against women and girls. We call on the Government of Zimbabwe to fast-track the adoption of the Marriage Bill, which recognizes child marriage as a crime, and to intensify the roll-out of the National Action Plan on Ending Child Marriage,” the UN said.
Manyara Irene Muyenziwa, the President of the FORUS party unequivocally condemned the menace of child marriage that has sadly pervaded our country.
“As a party rooted in our pledge to stick to our core values which are diligence, social justice, transparency, equality, and accountability, we are deeply saddened by the increasing cases of child marriages in Zimbabwe – a menace brought to the fore by the recent death of a 14-year-old child, Memory Machaya, who is reported to have died while giving birth at a shrine of the Johane Marange Apostolic Church in Manicaland.
“Regrettably, this is just but one of the many cases of unreported or undocumented child marriages happening every day in our country – a serious miscarriage of justice to the girl child whom society at large must protect and cherish in order for them to realize a safe and secure future in an independent country,” Muyenziwa said.
The United Kingdom-based politician said Zimbabwe’s hard-won independence should create a just society where everyone should cherish democratic values to be enjoyed by the majority of our people but noted with concern that citizens are still struggling to fulfill and attain these aspirations when stakeholders and stockholders of our beautiful country allow child marriages to go unchecked in this day and era.
Muyenziwa said as long as child marriage continues, it means that the gains of the liberation struggle have not been attained, and there is a yearning for freedom, which the majority of Zimbabweans have never enjoyed.
“As FORUS, we pledge to provide sustainable economic emancipation, creation of employment, and respect of human rights as a necessity to all Zimbabweans. Our institutions comprising religious and traditional leaders as well as the courts and the police should join hands in addressing the menace of child marriage. The fulfillment of social, political, and economic liberalization can only be attained through the democratization of all state institutions.
“We understand that numerous reports about violence, physical molestation, and gender-based violence are reported to authorities on a daily basis yet perpetrators of such atrocities against the girl child are walking scot-free in our society. As FORUS, we demand that authorities should bring all the culprits to book and punish offenders who mete out such injustices against the girl child. We condemn, in the strongest of terms, collusion between religious and political patronage at the expense of the girl child.”
