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Harare Bureau

Government has assured the nation that the law will be implemented fully to bring to book, perpetrators of child sexual abuse in communities.

This comes on the back of news of an eight months pregnant nine-year-old girl who is admitted to United Bulawayo Hospitals.

In a statement, Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni said a collective approach by all stakeholders and responsible authorities was needed to take action against such criminal acts.

Minister Dr Sithembiso Nyoni

“The incident is another clear testimony of some deep rooted, secretive negative culture of child sexual abuse implanted in some of our communities. This case poses a health risk to the life of the child and the baby she is carrying,” she said.

She said it was more worrying that the incident had happened within weeks of another incident where a young girl from Norton died at a shrine in Bikita while giving birth and the case of Annah Machaya who also died last year while giving birth at a shrine in Marange.

Minister Nyoni said the fact that in all the cases, communities, parents and guardians had been at the centre of concealing the abuse was very worrying.

“The Ministry condemns in the strongest sense such harmful practices and calls upon all stakeholders to be proactive in the fight against gender based violence and harmful practices particularly child marriages. The Marriages Act clearly states that the age of marriage is 18. Families, communities, religious and traditional leaders need to spring into action against such contemptible acts. We call upon families and girls to shun the culture of silence and speak out,” said the Minister.

Zimbabwe has put in place a several laws and policies which aim at improving the lives of women and young girls and has also acceded to and ratified several international and regional instruments that mandate the country to eliminate all forms of discrimination and abuse of children.

Minister Nyoni said there was need for collective introspection of the efforts in place to protect these young people and the effectiveness of such interventions.

“We should ask ourselves as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and as communities, whether we are doing enough to protect the girl child. As a nation, we need to be alive to the fact that these are gross violations of the girl’s rights and these are retrogressive to the national and global efforts of leaving no one and no place behind. Let us cooperate to ensure that perpetrators of such crimes are brought to book,” she added.

She called on stakeholders to also proactively protect the boy child as there have been cases of rape of the boy child (aggravated indecent assault).

Zimbabwe has developed a High Level Political Compact under the Spotlight Initiative Programme, a re-commitment by President Mnangagwa, together with other stakeholders from the donor community, UN agencies, CSOs, traditional leadership and religious leadership to fight gender based violence and harmful practices.

“The Compact is a clear testimony of Government’s commitment to ending gender based violence and harmful practices, child sexual abuse included. The compact itself stands very tall as a Presidential Declaration on Zero Tolerance to GBV in all its forms. We also draw the nation’s attention to the fact that, while GBV disproportionately affects women and girls, boys and men are not spared,” the Minister said.