A marriage of convenience has returned to haunt a Harare woman
who is legally married to a Nigerian but is customarily married to a local man,
under whose name she is trying to register their child.
The “fake” marriage was consummated a few years ago in a
bid to secure the Nigerian national’s residence permit and citizenship in the
country. The woman, whose name is still being withheld by the Department of
Immigration for fear of jeopardising investigations, is now customarily married
to a local man whom she has sired a child with.
However, the Registrar General’s Department cannot not
issue their child with a birth certificate reflecting her new husband’s name
since their system still reflects that the woman is married to the Nigerian
man. The woman is failing to locate the Nigerian national whom she ‘wedded’ while
she was a teenager. The two met at the Harare Magistrates Courts a few years
ago where she operated from as a vendor.
In an interview, the Immigration Department’s public
relations officer, Principal Immigration Officer Mrs Canisia Magaya said in the
recent past, cases of marriages of convenience had been on the increase until
Government introduced strict measures.
“The issue of marriages of convenience is a challenge in
the current migration dynamics. It is a phenomenon that is widely acknowledged
but very difficult to ascertain.
“Previously, especially during the turn of the century such
cases were at an alarming upward trajectory. However, currently we are noting a
downward trend in relation to such cases. The decrease can be attributed to a
cocktail of pre and post marriage vetting measures implemented by the
Department in conjunction with the Registrar General’s Department and the
Zimbabwe Republic Police in trying to curb this scourge,” she said.
Culprits were mostly from Nigeria and the Democratic
Republic of Congo among other countries who were entering into marriages of
convenience and marry more than one wife using different names to secure
Zimbabwean citizenship.
Mrs Magaya said, “A case was brought before the department
recently in which a young lady came to the Department of Immigration requesting
information about a certain Nigerian man with whom she wedded when she was a
teenager. She claimed that she together with three other Zimbabwean women was
approached by four Nigerian men at the Rotten Row Magistrates where they used
to sell foodstuffs for survival.
“They reached a deal to wed the foreigners in exchange of a
few thousand Zimbabwean dollars back then. She needed capital to travel to
South Africa to buy goods for resale for self-sustenance. However, when she
approached the office her problem was that she was now customarily married to a
Zimbabwean and they had a child who was not registered but needed to attend
school. The Registrar General Department could not issue her child with a birth
certificate in her new husband’s name because their system still reflected the
woman’s marriage to a Nigerian man and that needed to be annulled first. Her
challenge was she could not locate the Nigerian.”
She said the department is still carrying out
investigations into the matter and warned the public to desist from such
activities as they will be arrested or even complicate their lives in future.
In 2014, the Registrar-General’s Office said foreigners intending to marry
Zimbabweans should be cleared by relevant authorities before entering into such
marriages. Herald
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