Mangaliso Kabulika
LOCAL pastor, Tendekai Munetsi, has expressed concern over child marriages, which he has attributed to lack of cultural orientation and unemployment.
Munetsi said that some elderly men engaged in the practice as a result of idle minds, rather than out of love for their young wives.
He also suggested that unemployed families might marry off younger daughters in the belief that this would provide financial security.
Munetsi called for cultural orientation to prevent the practice and for the creation of sustainable livelihoods to break the cycle of child marriages.
“These elderly men marrying young girls have disregarded the African culture.
“They engage is such acts with young girls not because they love them, but they regard them as objects.
“It is very sad that some of these men are from religious sects which should be at the forefront of abolishing child marriages.
“Yes, in Zimbabwe there is religious freedom, but that does not mean religious sects can breach the culture. Besides the law dealing with them, there is a need for cultural orientation and to come up with ways to deal with such dysfunctional persons culturally as well,” he said.
