Times Of Swaziland: E500 FOR GIRL (13) MARRIAGE: CALL FOR  ARREST OF WHOLE FAMILY

E500 FOR GIRL (13) MARRIAGE: CALL FOR  ARREST OF WHOLE FAMILY
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Sithembile Hlatshwayo on 05/08/2024 08:09:00


MBABANE – Women’s rights defenders in the country are calling for the arrest
of the family of the 13-year-old girl who was reportedly given away to marry an
over 40-year-old man.
One Billion Rising Director Colani Hlatjwako said whether or not to open or
withdraw a case, was a decision of parents. Hlatjwako was referring to cases of
gender-based violence (GBV) committed on underage children. She was reacting
after the mother of the minor *Thandeka approached the High Court for an order
compelling the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office and Social Welfare Department to
release her daughter. This was after the Social Welfare Department had obtained
an order to remove the child from the homestead and keep her in a place of
safety, pending further investigations.
She said the law had to be applied to everything that was against the
regulations of the country.  The director said they were, therefore, expecting
the law to take its course on the matter and set an example, especially because
a 13-year-old has no capacity to be involved in a relationship or engage in
sexual intercourse. In the case in question, the minor told the police that the
man had sexual intercourse with her and did not use protection. She also
informed the police that she had no previous sexual encounter with anyone, until
she met the grown man, who insisted on marrying her.
Lesson
Hlatjwako said people should be taught a lesson, so that this would not be
repeated ever again. She stated that the habit was being observed where children
were given away by families for their own benefit. “As I speak, there are
people who should have been arrested, including the family members of the girl
child and those who have made her a wife, including the ‘husband’,” she
said. She said dragging investigations on GBV-related cases was the main cause
for people not taking seriously the legislation, because they observed that the
people involved were not held accountable.
This, she stated, made members of the public not frown upon the act, adding that
if the law would take its course, people would know that they would be arrested.
The director said if arrests were effected, it would also encourage those who
went through abuse to report cases of GBV.  She said nothing was more painful to
a survivor than being in the dark on what happened to the perpetrator and when
years pass by without the matter being heard. Swatini Action Group Against Abuse
(SWAGAA) Director Nonhlanhla Dlamini said Eswatini has a very progressive
legislation, which makes it clear that children below the age of 18 have no
mental capacity to consent.