The Act is said to have radically changed marriage laws in
Zimbabwe after the Marriages Act (Chapter 5:11) and Customary Marriages Act
(Chapter 5:07) were repealed.
The new Act, which introduced a civil partnership and a qualified
civil marriage, also recognises an unregistered customary law union as a
marriage.
Speaking to NewsDay yesterday, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers
Association director Abigail Matsvayi Pasipanodya said though the law was
bringing in a new perspective, it also had some flaws.
“We are, however, concerned that unregistered customary law
unions (kuroorana pachivanhu) are not fully recognised, that civil partnerships
can co-exist with civil marriages with the effect of eroding the monogamous
nature of civil marriages,” she said.
All marriages are entered into between a man and a woman
above 18 years of age.
Facilitating marriage of children under 18 years is now a
criminal offence.
A lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The
Act has brought some changes in that it has added marriages that were not
initially recognised. It has brought in civil partnerships in that before, they
were not supposed to be in any other relationship with any other person. That
was taken as adultery. The new Act, however, brings a relief in adultery in
that a person who is married can have another relationship outside their
marriage.
“In a way, the new Act addresses another gap where if a man
had a small house in case of death, that family, when it came to property
sharing, was left out. The property-sharing process only catered for the legal
spouse, so it’s (Act) trying to address a problem of catering for both,
however, creating other issues again.”
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights applauded
government for enacting the Marriages Act to protect children.
In its statement, ZLHR said although the enactment of this
crucial law was laudable, there was significant work which remained to be done
in the fight against the child marriage scourge. Newsday
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