Judgment No. CCZ 12/2015 44 Const. Application No. 79/14 family require, in many instances, that the persons who have attained the age of eighteen, who are desirous to found a family, enter into an agreement to live together as husband and wife which union forms the foundation and nucleus of the family. Entering into marriage is by definition one of the methods by which a family is founded. The court agrees with Mr Biti that only a broad, generous and purposive interpretation would give full effect to the right to found a family enshrined in s 78(1) of the Constitution. In Rattigan and Others v The Chief Immigration Officer and Others 1994(2) ZLR 54 the Court held that the preferred constitutional construction “is one which serves the interest of the Constitution and best carries its objects and promotes its purpose”. See also Smythe v Ushewokunze and Another 1997(2) ZLR 544(S). The interpretation of s 78(1) of the Constitution must take into account the provisions of subs(s) (2) and (3). Subsection (2) guarantees to the persons who have attained the age of eighteen years freedom to enter into marriage without compulsion and with free will. Section 26(a) which falls under Chapter 2 imposes an obligation on the State to take appropriate measures to ensure that no marriage is entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses. For the persons who have attained the age of eighteen to enjoy the right to enter into marriage freely and with full consent as intending spouses, they must first have the right to enter into marriage. Similarly subs (3) which prohibits same sex persons from entering into marriage means that those with the right to enter into marriage are the persons mentioned in s 78(1) of the Constitution. It is the person mentioned in s 78(1) of the Constitution who is given