FOREWORD
Age of consent and surrounding issues have been perennially topical in Zimbabwe. Access to
adolescent sexual and reproductive health, rising levels of teen pregnancies and the all-time
high illegal termination of pregnancies involving minors, the high levels of sexual abuse, and
the thorny issue of child marriages have all contributed to this. For instance, following the
Constitutional Court decision of Mudzuru & Anor v Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs & Ors CC 12-15, the President was quoted in the public media
announcing that government would look to raise the age of consent from the current 16 to
18, to align it with the constitutional protection afforded to all children below the age of 18
years.
As other issues emerged and continue to emerge, such as the scourge of child prostitution
in places like Epworth and the hotspots in Zimbabwe’s haulage trucking routes such as
Ngundu, Beitbridge and Kazungula Border Post, the age of consent has been brought into
the spotlight. Most recently, allegations of a discussion on the possible lowering of the age
of consent reportedly discussed by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health in
March 2019 sparked discussion on the age of consent. The Committee’s Chair was to later
issue a statement, announcing that it was in fact access to sexual and reproductive health
services that came under discussion as opposed to lowering the age of consent. However
one takes it, the age of consent has once again been brought to the fore.
Justice for Children (JCT), as an institution, has been at the forefront of child protection in
Zimbabwe through the provision of legal services, legal education, and through lobby and
advocacy. In close to two decades of child protection work, JCT has interfaced with child
protection issues that are vital and central to the age of consent discourse. Within this
context, this publication has been put together as a discussion paper to assist in shaping the
discourse on the age of consent in Zimbabwe. It captures issues on the age of consent, not
in isolation, but as interconnected and intertwined to other issues such as access to sexual
and reproductive health services and the protection of children who have sexual intercourse
with other children. The latter is particularly important in light of the fact that as JCT, a
significant chunk of cases of children in conflict with the law that our lawyers handle in the
criminal courts throughout the country, pertain to children charged for having sexual
intercourse with a young person under section 70 of the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23].
We trust that this publication will serve as an information pack and reference point to the
discussion on the age of consent and related topics, as Child Protection Practitioners,
Government, law and policy makers, parents and guardians, and children themselves
address this critical but complex topic.
PETRONELLA NYAMAPFENE
Director, Justice for Children
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