The Marriages Amendment Bill which will repeal a legal
provision that criminalises “wilful” transmission of HIV to a partner has been
approved by Cabinet.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi said a Clause in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act that
criminalises transmission of HIV by one partner to another would be repealed.
Minister Ziyambi said this yesterday in Harare while
responding to questions from journalists during a post Cabinet briefing which
was chaired by Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Prisca
Mupfumira.
He said the Marriages Amendment Bill which was approved by
Cabinet would also repeal that Clause of the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act.
“Yes, indeed Cabinet approved that we repeal the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act where it speaks about these criminalisation
so we will repeal the Criminal Code in this regard,” said Minister Ziyambi.
The Marriages Amendment Bill will soon be gazetted before
it is tabled before Parliament for debate.
The decision to decriminalise transmission of HIV dovetails
with what Minister Ziyambi told Parliament earlier this year.
In March, Minister Ziyambi made an assurance to repeal the
Clause during a question and answer session after Zengeza West legislator Mr
Job Sikhala (MDC-Alliance) had asked if Government was considering amending the
law which criminalise transmission of HIV.
“When this legislation came into effect, the thinking then
was that we need to control the spread of HIV by criminalising those who
transmit it to partners knowingly. But the global thinking now is that that law
stigmatises people living with HIV and studies have shown that it does not
produce the results that were intended. What the Ministry is going to do is to
repeal that section of the law and ensure that we keep up with modern trends in
the world,” said Minister Ziyambi in the National Assembly.
He said the fastest way of doing it was to incorporate the
provision in the Marriages Amendment Bill.
Earlier on Minister Mupfumira said Cabinet approved the
Coroner’s Office Bill.
She said the Bill sought to help safeguard human lives
through facilitating specialising investigation of preventable deaths and
identification of deceased persons.
“The country has previously relied on expatriates for the
specialised investigations required to conclude such cases, which arrangement
has now become unsustainable. In more precise terms, the Bill will establish an
efficient coroner system to look into the cause of death in the following
circumstances among deaths that occur without a medical doctor’s attention,
surgical operation table deaths and deaths while in jail, police custody or
other central authority control,” said Minister Mupfumira. Herald
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