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Yoliswa Dube Features Reporter
CHILD President Nhlanhla Moyo is grateful to have been born-free. He says he would probably have never survived the war to liberate Zimbabwe. “I don’t think I’d have survived the war. The stories I’ve heard about the struggle are heart-breaking. I’ve been told about how people would sleep right in the middle of maize fields hiding away from the settler regime soldiers,” said Moyo.

As part of this year’s independence celebrations, the child president will join other children from the country’s 10 provinces in Harare.

“We meet in Harare as born-frees to celebrate this important day in the history of our country. These celebrations are organised by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.

Pupils get an opportunity to showcase their different talents as they celebrate their independence and diversity of our cultures,” said Moyo.

He said Zimbabweans were enjoying freedom today because of the sacrifice of the many gallant sons and daughters who took arms to fight the settler regime.

“There are many countries in turmoil in the world right now hence we should appreciate the peace and tranquility that’s prevailing in this country. Our greatest independence benefit has been education,” said Moyo.

The child president, whose term of office expires in June, said he and other junior parliamentarians had made significant strides in advocating for the rights of children.

“We’ve had a career review consultative meeting and we’re advocating for the end of child marriages. Child marriages, I think, continue to happen because of religious beliefs which should be rejected by society. The world is changing, the more we resist change, the more we’ll have problems,” said Moyo.

He said the government should ensure that those that force children into early marriages are punished severely.

“There is an anomaly between the Customary Law Act and the age of consent. People in this country are only allowed to marry at 18 but the age of consent is 16,” said Moyo.

Meanwhile, Moyo said Child parliamentarians in conjunction with the National Aids Council, have been advocating for an HIV free generation.

“This of course is a long term project but we hope to reach zero at some time. Bulawayo has the highest prevalence of HIV at three percent. We’ve also been engaging the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development with a view to finding solutions to the problem of gender based violence,” said Moyo.

He added: “Children are affected by gender based violence and this is why we’re engaging government so that we can reduce cases of violence,” he said.