punishment as invalid. However, the decision
did not affect the administering of corporal
punishment in the home and at school.
Corporal Punishment
A matter was argued in the Constitutional Court
which sought to declare judicial corporal
punishment as unconstitutional. The decision
was handed down in the case of S v
Chokuramba, Justice for Children’s Trust
Intervening as Amicus Curiae Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights Intervening as Amicus Curiae
CCZ 10-19, banning judicial corporal
punishment and declaring section 353 of the
Criminal Code which allowed corporal
Zimbabwe presented an initial report to the
African Committee of Expert on the Rights and
We l f a r e o f t h e C h i l d a n d r e c e i v e d
recommendations. The process of developing a
National Implementation Plan of Action of the
concluding observations was initiated and never
finalised.
Specific Cases
Ÿ
Political parties, particularly ZANU-PF, forced children to attend political rallies, and used
school grounds, buses and other property for political activities. These were also the findings of
the ZHRC in an investigation that was triggered by several complaints lodged with the
Commission. The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) successfully
obtained a declarator and an interdict against the conduct before Justice Mafusire in the
Masvingo High Court. However, the Supreme Court vacated the order on a technicality on
appeal by ZANU-PF.
Ÿ
On the 4 April 2018 Human Rights Watch (HRW) launched a report on child labour on
tobacco farms in Zimbabwe titled “A Bitter Harvest: Child Labour and Human Rights Abuses on
Tobacco Farms in Zimbabwe”. The 105-page report reveals child labour in Zimbabwe
commercial tobacco farm, and how children are exposed to hazardous conditions and are at
risk of acute nicotine poisoning or “green tobacco sickness” caused by absorbing nicotine
through the skin from tobacco plants. Child labour has also been reported in the tea estates of
24
Manicaland. The same goes for both large and artisan mining activities. In the Lowveld, four
months of investigative journalism found that cases of child labour by sugarcane out-growers
in the cane plantations was rampant, especially during the cutting season. Most of the child
labourers were survivors of the Tokwe Mukosi floods, who lived in abject poverty.
Ÿ
The ZNWC recorded 72 cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Child sexual
exploitation cases (child prostitution) cases were recorded, especially in areas such as
Epworth; Hopley; Caledonia; and the transport corridors in Chirundu, Victoria Falls,
Beitbridge and Masvingo, Ngundu, Chinhoyi, Chirundu and Hwange. Specific mining towns
were also significantly implicated. These include Bindura, Kwekwe, Kadoma, Zvishavane and
big cities such as Bulawayo. In Bindura, over 136 sexual abuse cases involving complainant
minors were pending before the court.
Ÿ
Local NGOs handled several cases of children whose grade 7 and O'level results were
withheld over arrear school fees. In Chiredzi, a Chiredzi-based community-based
organisation attended to 11 such cases. This despite the Bulawayo High Court having ruled in
2013 that withholding of results is illegal.25 On 27 March JCT filed an urgent chamber
24. See “Child labour rampant in team plantation” Daily News, 3 June 2013,https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2013/06/03/childlabour-rampant-in-tea-plantation and Zimbabwe: when ending child labour does not end child exploitation” African Arguments, 10
September 2015, https://africanarguments.org/2015/09/10/zimbabwe-when-ending-child-labor-does-not-end-child-exploitation/
25. S v Nyabeza and Another HB 1-11 Cheda J (Ndou J concurring). The practice of withholding results is in violation of sections 75(1)
and (4) and 81(1)(f) of the Constitution on the right to education; section 4(1) of the Education Act [Chapter 25:04]; sections 19(1) and
81(2) of the Constitution on the best interests of the child, and section 7(1) of the Children's Act [Chapter 5:06] on the right of children
to be protected from ill-treatment.
36
STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ZIMBABWE 2018
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