Bulawayo Senator, Tholakele Khumalo, says the decree by Prosecutor General Tomana that girls as young as 12 can consent to sex ruins efforts to eliminate the poverty cycle, infant health and has distressing effects on the girl child.
In an exclusive interview with 263Chat, Senator Khumalo said this announcement will fuel the poverty cycle.
“The family of that child is perpetuated into poverty, herself, her children and her grandchildren; it will be a chain of poverty in that family tree,” she said.
She went onto say that at the age of 12, the child would not have developed properly, physically and mentally.
“That child doesn’t not know what she is doing,” she said.
She called for collaborative efforts to fight such an ill-informed decision.
“We need to fight that. There is need to collaborate and disagree with such an ill-informed decision,” said the Bulawayo Senator.
Meanwhile multitudes of Zimbabweans have registered their anger over the Prosecutor General’s sentiments.
Social media is awash with messages lamenting this decree.
Posting on her Facebook page, Maureen Kademaunga said, “If you are not outraged, then you are just not paying attention! Tomana needs to see a competent psychiatrist. A whole Attorney General who defends child-marriages and advocates for 12 years as the age of consent is a sure mental case.”
Research Advocate Unit (RAU) echoed the above sentiments when they tweeted that:
Tomana's comments are not in line with his boss' statement at the recent AU summit. #No to child marriage
— RAU (@RAUZW) June 19, 2015
and
Consent should be at 18. The Constitution states that only when 18 can you found a family. Has Tomana read the Constitution????
— RAU (@RAUZW) June 19, 2015
In a press statement issued today, Child Rights Movement said, “We are seriously outraged by the careless utterances attributed to the Prosecutor General in relation to the debate on age of consent. While we are tempted to take his comments as personal, we are clear that his office does not allow him to make such contradictory statement in view of Zimbabwe’s position on children’s’ rights, and the campaign to end child marriages.”
