The Sunday Mail
Emmanuel Kafe
A fortnight ago, rumour spread that there were intentions of reducing the age of sexual consent, from the current 16 years to 12.
Predictably, social media platforms went on fire as parents and guardians feared that children’s lives had been put on the line.
With hundreds of child abuse allegations and several thousand child brides already in the country, the anger was palpable.
Word was that the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care had proposed that the age of sexual consent be reduced from 16 years down to 12.
The committee’s chairperson, Dr Ruth Labode, clarified their position and said the issues that had been discussed were to do with access to reproductive health services for girls below the current age of sexual consent, and not reducing the age of sexual consent. Dr Labode said the current law required girls below the age of 16 years to be accompanied by either of their parents or guardian to access sexual and reproductive health services.
Age of sexual consent is a legal notion and it is thus enforced by the law.
Simply put, the age of consent is the age when one is considered to be capable of agreeing to have sex, and until one reaches the specific age, they are barred from indulging. Social commentator and television personality, Dr Rebecca Chisamba, said 12-year-olds are not little adults but that they are children and should not be engaging in sexual activities.
“What is needed is sex and reproductive education to these minors but according to our culture, values and norms, it’s not acceptable for minors to do such.
“We don’t expect someone as little as 12 years to be engaging in sexual activities because even if they have consented , it is abuse,” she said.
Dr MacJohn Chirisa, a paediatrician, said the age of sexual consent should remain at 16 which is the international best practice but added that there are minors who are engaging in sexual activities at an earlier age.
“Children during their transition to adulthood suffer from emotional and psychological problems that sometimes result in them engaging in sexual activities at a tender age and what we encourage is abstinence.
“Twelve-year-olds should have access and seek sexual and reproductive health services from clinics on their own, because in as much as we don’t accept it they are in some quarters engaging, so the issue is to go and have access to sexual and reproductive health services from clinics,” he said.
A human rights lawyer, Advocate Munei Tsanurwa, who specialises in children’s rights, said the current law does not permit girls below 16 years to seek sexual and reproductive health services from a clinic on their own.
“It allows children to be accompanied by either of their parents or a guardian.
“For example, if a girl below 16 years is suffering from a sexually transmitted infection, she cannot seek treatment on her own. In fact, if the caregiver proceeds to assist the young girl without the consent of her parents and the girl experiences some side effects or complications, the nurse can actually be sued by the girl’s family for attending to the minor without their consent,” she said.
But she believes children should be allowed to go and receive treatment from hospitals and clinics even without the consent of their parents to avoid stigma.
Section 61 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act says, unlawful sexual conduct means any act, the commission of which constitutes the crime of rape, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, sexual intercourse, or performing an indecent act with a young person or sodomy.
The young person is described as anyone under the age of 16. While Section 70 of the Criminal Code talks of sexual intercourse or performing indecent acts with young persons and maintains that a young person is a person below 16 years of age in relation to the crime of rape, Section 78 of the Constitution states 18 years as the age at which a person has the right to start a family. Section 22(1) of the Marriage Act allows girls to marry at 16, and legal experts say this predates the Constitution which defines a child as anyone under 18.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency’s (ZimStats) Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2014: “Child marriage before 18 years) is deteriorating although ‘very early’ child marriage before 15 years is improving (getting lower).
The MICS 2014 data show that one-in-three women got married before age 18, and also depict huge differences between urban (18 percent) and rural (43 percent) areas. Section 22(1) of the Marriage Act states that no girl under the age of 16 years and no boy under the age of 18 years shall contract a valid marriage without the consent of the Minister.
