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The institution of marriage is the bedrock of Zimbabwean families and all efforts should therefore be directed at preserving marriages. Any law that infringes on the institution of marriage should be viewed as a threat not only to families but to Zimbabwean society in general. 

We want to commend Cabinet for its decision to withdraw a clause in the Marriages Amendment Bill that provided for “civil partnership” which, according to a cross section of the Zimbabwean society, was a threat to the institution of marriage. 

The withdrawn clause was definitely going to destroy marriages given its purported rights it wanted to grant to parties in a marriage. 

The clause wanted to recognise extra-marital unions which it referred to as civil partnerships. Cabinet ruled that the civil partnership union is alien and not consistent with the country’s cultural and Christian values and therefore directed that Section 40, which bears reference to “civil partnership” be removed from the proposed Marriages Amendment Bill.  

Cabinet’s decision, we want to believe, was informed by the sentiments of Zimbabweans who outright rejected the civil partnership which they viewed as a threat to marriages that are the foundation of families.  

Zimbabweans at various fora where the issue of civil partnership was discussed were united in rejecting the union and we are happy that Cabinet read well the society’s pulse on this issue. 

The civil partnership should, however, not be confused with unregistered marriages that exist mostly in rural areas where couples have lived together as husband and wife for several years without registering their marriages. 

Zimbabwe is already witnessing an increase in divorce cases. Couples that filed for divorce at the Bulawayo High Court shot to 820 between January and December last year, marking a 60 percent increase compared to 512 in the previous year and the trend is the same throughout the country. 

Lawyers and religious leaders attribute the increase in the number of divorce cases to economic challenges and the breakdown of the extended family system that used to play an integral part in preserving marriages. Divorce applications accounted for the bulk of the 1 677 summons filed at the Bulawayo High Court in 2018. 

Marriage experts say either men or women are forced to leave their spouses behind in search of greener pastures in the diaspora resulting in couples separating for a long time. 

They say as a result of this separation for long periods, the spouses are tempted to engage in extra-marital affairs thereby threatening their marriages. The experts also say lack of financial stability is also contributing to collapse of marriages. 

Most women, they say, are now financially independent and they can afford to look after themselves and the family unlike in the past when they solely relied on their husbands. 

The situation was going to be worse had Government legalised civil partnerships which would have allowed married couples to legally engage in extra-marital affairs.