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

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.

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