The constitutionality of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church doctrine of marrying off young girls and covering up alleged sexual abuse among congregants is now under the spotlight after gender activists sued the church and its high priest Noah Taguta for allegedly violating girls and women’s rights.
Precious Nyaradzo Musarurwa, Linda Masarira and Munyaradzi
Midzi, through their lawyer Ms Jacqueline Sande, have launched the suit at the
Constitutional Court seeking urgent alignment of the Marriages Act and the
Customary Marriages Act with the Constitution within six months to protect
girls under 18.
The proposed Marriages Bill, which does bring both civil
and customary marriages into a single law and insists that both parties to any
marriage must be at least 18 and both consenting, has been bogged down in Parliament
for much of this year and will have to be reintroduced in the next session when
it is now likely to pass after the Government conceded that customary unions,
although not civil marriages, need a lobola element.
In the law suit that is likely to help intensify pressure
for the new legislation, the Ministers of Justice Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage and of Women’s Affairs,
Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development were also listed as
respondents in their official capacities along with the Attorney General of
Zimbabwe. .
The application is based on the recent incident where a
15-year-old Annah Machaya died while giving birth at a Johanne Marange shrine
in Manicaland.
The Constitutional Court will first rule on whether the
three have the legal right to directly approach the court with their case,
before getting into the merits.
They also seek to push the Government into expediting the
amendment of the marriage laws to criminalise child marriages and intimacy
involving children before the age of consent.
The Constitutional Court some five years ago, outlawed
marriage of children under 18 years but the age of sexual consent in terms of
the Criminal Law Codification Reform Act remained at 16 years. The three want
it raised to 18 years to fit in with the minimum marriage age.
In the application, the applicants argued that the church’s
doctrine was unlawful and any members caught on the wrong side of the law must
be arrested and charged without fear or favour.
The three argue and allege that the Johanne Marange
Apostolic Church doctrine and other doctrines have been used to deceive and
coerce girls and women to take part in sexual activities, childbearing and more
through forced marriages without facing any legal consequences for their
allegedly unlawful acts.
The three argue in their papers filed at the Constitutional
Court that the unconstitutionality of such practices by individuals but most
notably, religious sects like the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church who practice
child marriages, sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse affecting girls
and women and depriving them of their rights. They further argue that the
existence of child marriages, some six years after the Constitutional Court
judgment, should be blamed on the Government which did not speed up the
alignment process.
The existence of early child marriages and pregnancies is
evidence that there is a gap that the law needs to cover in order to protect
girls against such discrimination.
Girls are entitled to effective protection by the courts as
the upper guardian of the rights of children which is responsible for enforcing
the fundamental rights designed for their protection and has a duty to ensure
alignment of all the other laws to the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the
relevant international laws, reads the papers.
However, Government through The Attorney General’s civil
division argued that the order being sought is incompetent because Parliament
was already dealing with the amendment of the laws in question.
At this juncture, respondents would like to highlight that already
the Parliament of Zimbabwe is in the process of enactment of the new Marriages
Act which has been deliberated by the National Assembly and has now reached
Senate. The ministers named and the Attorney General no longer have any control
of the pace at which lawmakers consider the Bill.
To that end, the nature or the order being sought by the
applicants is incompetent since the four officials can no longer control the
process due to the doctrine of separation of powers, reads the notice of
opposition.
It was also argued that the matter of Annah Machaya
complained of was already in the criminal court with suspects being charged.
Herald
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