Judgment No. CCZ 12/2015 6 Const. Application No. 79/14 The grounds of opposition to the application on the merits are straight-forward. The respondents denied that s 78(1) of the Constitution has the effect of setting the age of eighteen years as the minimum age for marriage in Zimbabwe. Their reason for the denial was that s 78(1) gives a person who has attained the age of eighteen the “right to found a family”. The contention is that the meaning of s 78(1) of the Constitution is apparent from the grammatical and ordinary meaning of the language used in giving the “right to found a family”. The respondents contend further that s 78(1) of the Constitution does not give a person who has attained the age of eighteen years the “right to enter into marriage”. The minor premise on which the contention is based is that the “right to found a family” does not imply the right to marry. The respondents supported their denial of the contention that s 78(1) of the Constitution sets the age of eighteen years as the minimum age of marriage by the argument, advanced on their behalf, that s 78(1) is not amenable to a broad, generous and purposive interpretation in the determination of its meaning. The argument was that it is only accommodative of a literal interpretation. The effect of the respondents’ argument was that the question of interpretation did not arise as the words used were clear and unambiguous. Having denied the allegation that s 78(1) of the Constitution sets the age of eighteen years as the minimum age for marriage, the respondents went on to deny that s 22(1) of the Marriage Act or any other law which authorises a girl child who has attained the age of sixteen years to marry contravenes s 78(1) of the Constitution. They raised as a rationale for the difference in the treatment of a girl child and a boy child under s 22(1) of the Marriage Act, the old notion that a girl matures physiologically and psychologically earlier than a boy. They put forward the notion of the alleged difference in the rates of maturity in the growth and