STATUTES REQUIRING CONSTITUTIONAL ALIGNMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ • Sections 66(6) and 68(6), which require accused persons to disclose their defence cases before trial. Under sections 50 and 70 of the Constitution they have a right to remain silent. • Sections 67, 115, 189, 199 and 257, which allow adverse inferences to be drawn from an accused person’s silence. Adverse inferences cannot be drawn from an exercise of a constitutional right. • Section 117, which imposes severe restrictions on an accused person’s right to bail. Under section 50(1) (d) of the Constitution, on the other hand, arrested persons are entitled to bail “unless there are compelling reasons justifying their continued detention”. • Section 258A, which purports to limit the circumstances in which courts can refuse to allow illegally-obtained evidence to be admitted. • Section 353, which allows corporal punishment to be imposed on young boys. This amounts to cruel and inhuman punishment, prohibited by section 53 of the Constitution, as our Supreme Court held in 1989 and judgments of the High Court have held since then. The list is by no means exhaustive. Further amendments are needed to tighten provisions about how law enforcement authorities obtain search warrants (only magistrates or judges should be allowed to issue search warrants). 18. Customary Law and Local Courts Act [Chapter 7:05] Provision should be added in Part II of the Act (dealing with the application of customary law) ensuring that men and women must be accorded equal rights under customary law. Section 20 of the Act should be amended to allow litigants the right to be represented by lawyers before local (i.e. traditional) courts because section 69(4) of the Constitution gives everyone a right to legal representation before “any court, tribunal or forum”. 19. Customary Marriages Act [Chapter 5:07] This Act must be amended to prohibit child marriage. Section 81 of the Constitution protects children against all forms of abuse, and child marriage is regarded throughout the world as an abuse. The Constitutional Court has outlawed child marriage (in the case of Mudzuru & Anor v Minister of Justice & Ors CC-12-2015, instituted by Veritas) and the Act must be amended to reflect this. Section 12, which states that Africans who want to get married under the Marriage Act (i.e. to enter into a non-customary marriage) must get a certificate from a magistrate in order to do so, should be repealed. 20. Defence Act [Chapter 11:02]* The Act should be amended: • to state that the powers to appoint, promote and dismiss members of the Defence Forces under the Act must be exercised impartially and in order to ensure proper representation of all the diverse peoples of Zimbabwe; • to prohibit members of the Defence Forces from participating in politics [unlike the Police Act, there is no such provision in the Defence Act at present]; 7