Source: Rising cases of young pregnant girls demands urgent action | The Herald
Africa Moyo Deputy News Editor
Probably the most sickening statistic released this week was that one out of three women is married before the age of 18 according to figures from Unicef.
This demands that Zimbabwe takes action urgently.
Young girls are increasingly under siege across the country, with their rights trampled upon daily.
Uncouth males, greedy females, and parents and guardians, who shamelessly view girls as commodities that can be traded for a penny or two, now need to be controlled if the scourge of child abuse, child pregnancies and child marriages scourge is to be stopped.
There are several cases of parents and guardians who give away young girls in exchange for food.
The men who would have paid anything between 100kg and 250kg of maize as lobola, start to abuse the girls, some of them as young as 10 years.
Other cases involve prophets from some religious groupings who demand that any exorcism or deliverance session done on a family be rewarded by handing over a young girl to the prophet .
Some child pregnancies have come as a result of kidnapping young girls and offering them to willing men as sex slaves.
A 28-year-old Chitungwiza woman was in May this year wanted by police after allegedly going to the Chikangwe area in Karoi where she persuaded seven juveniles aged between 12 and 16 years to accompany her to the Buffalo Downs area in Karoi on the pretext she would offer them employment as shop attendants.
But the woman then took the girls to her residence in Zengeza 1, Chitungwiza.
Police say on May 14, the suspect started to give the victims beer, family planning pills, among other tablets, and drugged them before forcing them to be intimate with different men whom she charged a fee.
This continued up until three escaped from the suspect’s home on 24 May, 2022 and contacted their parents, who then sent them bus fares to return home and a police report was made,” said Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
This was one of the harrowing stories of the year, which demonstrated that women who are hungry to make illicit money, will not look at birth certificates of any girl before setting older, and in some cases sick men on them.
In the last two or so years, Zimbabwe has lost two 15-year-old girls, Anna Machaya and Nokutenda Hwaramba, in heart-rending circumstances.
The two, who might be the only ones documented so far, died at religious shrines while giving birth.
Anna at a shrine in Marange, Manicaland province last year, while Nokutenda died in Bikita recently.
But to illustrate that unscrupulous men can still abuse young girls, our sister paper, The Manica Post, yesterday published a nerve-wracking story of a pregnant Grade 7 learner in the peri-urban community of Rowa, a few kilometres outside Mutare.
The child reportedly collapsed just after finishing her final examination on Monday, and was taken to Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital.
Now, the young and innocent girl has to deliver her baby through surgery as she is still too young for a normal delivery.
The saddening state of affairs comes as Zimbabwe joined the world in commemorating the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl Child on October 11. The commemorations were held under the theme, Our time is now-our rights, our future .
The three cases above of abuse of young girls indicate that at this rate, the time for girls may not be now and their future looks grim if decisive action is not taken urgently to deal with voracious males who prey on young girls.
Unicef released a startling statement on October 11.
It said the challenges girls in Zimbabwe face remain important, including the risk of becoming pregnant or married at an early age .
Adolescent pregnancies and child marriage are widespread in Zimbabwe. One woman out of three is married before the age of 18, said Unicef.
Child marriages have a devastating impact on the lives of adolescent girls as their childhood is disrupted.
More often, child marriages lead to early pregnancies, which come with untold health complications.
The girls also drop-out of school to focus on tending the baby, if they survive death while giving birth.
Mutare District Schools Inspector, Mr Crezin Chofamba, told our Manicaland Bureau that: As a ministry, we value giving access to education to young girls, no matter their circumstances. Questions surrounding her pregnancy should not deter her from accessing education.
The policy is great, but men cannot be allowed to continue abusing young girls.
Neighbours, police and the courts need to up their game to expose and strongly punish culprits so as to deter others.
Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni, has expressed concern over rising cases of young girls who die while giving birth.
The case of Nokutenda, who died at a shrine in Bikita while giving birth, is clearly another case of rape, she said. Zimbabwe, we need to be alive to the fact that these are gross violations of girls’ rights.
This is one of the many incidents of maternal deaths occurring among children.
Dr Nyoni urged the nation to protect the rights of girls, and to also take stock of all the commitments made on most of the issues that affect girls.
We want to be celebrating the girl child on this day, but we find ourselves faced with such saddening scenarios, which I implore all of us to reflect and introspect if this is the kind of life we want for our girl child, she said. This introspection is not limited to any organisation or individual, but calls for collective action.
Collective action naturally means families, communities, religious and traditional leaders must stop perpetrating the abuse themselves, but start reporting such cases when they occur.
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