Call to overhaul Marriage Bill
PARLIAMENT should amend the Marriage Bill to include inheritance issues to protect the interests of the surviving spouse in the event of death or after divorce.
The proposal was made by Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association (ZWLA) legal officer Mrs Isabel Palasida during a consultative meeting with Women Parliamentary Caucus position on the Marriage Bill.
Mrs Palasida said the Marriage Bill only dealt with a portion of the law on marriages and other pertinent issues were not captured.
“The Bill does not address pieces of legislation that currently impact on the marriage either during its subsistence, after divorce or upon the death of a spouse such as inheritance laws, property rights, guardianship rights of a father and mother
“The recommendation is to bring all laws related to marriage under one piece of legislation or to have a provision which gives reference to other related pieces of legislation,” she said.
She also said the Marriage Bill did not deal with the age of consent to sexual intercourse. She said the Bill should set both marriageable age and age of consent to sexual intercourse at 18 years.
“The law on the minimum age of consent to sexual intercourse is complex but for present purposes, the minimum age set by the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act in respect of an offence in Section 70 of that Act is 16 years.
“The Bill purports to be prohibiting child marriages. The prohibition is in Clause 3 of the Bill. A ‘child marriage’ is a marriage in which either one party is below 18 years or both parties are under 18 years.
“In terms of Clause 3(1), no person under the age of 18 years may contract a marriage or enter into an unregistered customary law union or civil partnership. In Clause 3(2), the Bill declares that child marriages are prohibited,” Mrs Palasida said.
She added that chiefs must receive training before being entrusted with the responsibility to preside over marriages.
“Not every chief may have the capacity to perform the heavy responsibilities of a marriage officer. Lack of capacity may arise from advanced age or illiteracy.
“Some chiefs may easily be misled in respect of proof of age and end up solemnising child marriages. A chief must be restricted to his or her area of jurisdiction,” she said.
Mrs Palasida said the Bill should specify the circumstances under which a customary marriage would be deemed to be in existence for purposes of prohibiting child marriages such as where a pregnant child stays with the family of the man responsible for the pregnancy.