MUTATI WARNS AGAINST CHILD MARRIAGES

TECHNOLOGY and Science Minister Felix Mutati has implored traditional leaders to take stiffer action against any parent who will marry off their underage children, saying this has been one of the causes of underdevelopment and poverty in Zambia.

And a Catholics Priest in Lunte has appealed to married couples to report Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases to the police and avoid waiting until lives are lost.

Speaking as Guest of Honour at the marriage of sub-chief chisheta’s daughter at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lunte yesterday, Mr. Mutati said underage marriages were an eyesore to national development and that the scourge must be stopped forthwith.

He said parents’ insatiable appetite to marry off their children at a tender age must be curtailed as it comes with huge repercussions and that instead, children must be kept in school to better their future.

He warned that he does not want to hear any more cases of child marriages in Lunte and that any parent doing so must be brought to book.

He said the quick-fix solution of marrying off children in exchange for goats and cows is what has increased the cases of GBV because the young people who get married at an early age have no commitment to marriage as they are too young to understand the concept of holy matrimony.

“You cannot exchange children with cows and goats in the name of getting married because the next thing you will get are cases of GBV where they start fighting each other and this is because they go into marriage without understanding anything.

“I appeal to all traditional leaders here to ensure that people are married off properly like we have witnesses today,” Mr. Mutati said.

And St. Leo the Great Catholic Church Parish Priest Father Joseph Sampa said women have mostly been suffering silently in homes for fear that they would not survive without their abusive husbands but encouraged couples to report all forms of GBV, whether victims were men or women.

He said man and woman joined in holy matrimony must reflect the desire of Jesus Christ where the two worship together and raise their children to become responsible citizens in society.

“The problem I have with you women is that even when you are suffering from an abusive marriage, you want to stay and claim that you have nowhere to go yet you have the power to fend for yourselves. We cannot allow a situation where people are suffering silently in the name of keeping a marriage and because you can’t leave, they take advantage.

“Men know their inefficiencies and that is why when you leave an abusive man, they will follow you after a few weeks because they realise they cannot stay without you. Learn to leave or report them to the police. Don’t fear that they will be arrested. Sometimes they just need to be corrected” Fr. Sampa said.

He implored men to stop abusing their wives saying they are helpers whom God had left them with but also asked women to reflect true godliness than becoming the problem in the marriage.

“Whichever church you go to, you will find more women than men. While women are here worshipping God and praying for their families, men are out there drinking but the real danger in a home comes when the women, who is supposed intercede for the family, goes wayward. When such things happen, then you know there is a serious problem in that home,” he said.
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