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Ignatius T Mabasa Shelling The Nuts
Unlike my young brother, I don’t have the gift of a dart-mouth. And also, unlike Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, I am unable to appeal to spirits that tend to mortal thoughts to unsex me, and fill me from crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.

So, instead of spewing red hot volcanic vitriol, something just died in me after I read that Prosecutor-General Mr Johannes Tomana had said children under the age of 12 could consent to sex, while marrying was an option for under age girls who were neither going to school, nor work.

Personally, I am tired of shocking utterances like the condoms and tablets in schools.

I am saddened by the grumbling and moaning about things to do with money matters and economic hardships, which most people are using to justify doing unethical and morally rotten things.

And Mr Tomana’s statement made me feel that Zimbabwe is now like a river that is drying up — demystifying and destroying the time honoured principles and commitments that have defined us as a people. Of course, too many things are happening in our country and most of these are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain.

While the utterances by Mr Tomana have since been corrected, I am trying to find inner peace among a lot of happenings. I am trying to get used to the colourful installations on Harare’s pavements by the vendors, the ZIFA circus, the mystery of the missing Dzamara and the political suicides.

I am also trying to understand people like Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, who is getting his knickers in a twist and refusing to accept the reality of falling like an overripe and rotten tomato. So, this shocking story of children aged 12 consenting to sex deflated me, as a parent and someone who works with children.

Mr Tomana eventually explained himself and the law in The Saturday Herald. His clarification is good, but the law part of it is as clear as mud.

Mr Tomana said, “If the girl is below the age of 12, whether she agreed, whether she consented or whether you had the so-called affair, which can be established, you will be treated like a rapist. This is the law and I’m supposed to speak about it the way it is in the books and it’s not about what I think.

“Then I said, above the age of 12 to the age of 16, if you knew that they were between the age of 12 and 16 and you slept with them knowing that, the fact that you were going out with her and had a relationship, in the eyes of the law will not matter but not to the extent of the below 12.

“It is only to the extent that morally we say it’s wrong and we have all agreed by law that it is wrong and it should be punished but it is not punished like rape that is why you find that the one who is charged is sentenced to statutory rape and is not sentenced to the rape-years because they are taking into account that this girl was in agreement, this girl was not ravaged; it was consensual. But we are saying it’s wrong to sleep with a girl who is below the age of 16, that is why they are not punished as much as those that sleep with the one who is below the age of 12. That is the law.

“The other part of it is, if you did not know that the girl was below the age of 16 and you reasonably believe that the girl was older and the court can see that she looks old enough and she consented, you will actually be found not guilty and that is the law.”

But the law is avoiding using the word child, and instead talks of a girl. We need the law to clearly define what it means by a child and protect children. Even children above the age of 12 to 16, they are vulnerable and need to be guided, cared for and protected from sex predators because they are children. They are gullible, can be taken advantage of and they themselves make disastrous decisions. One 15-year-old orphaned girl used to sneak out of boarding school to go for Jah Prayzah’s shows until she bumped into one of her uncles at one of the shows.

Even when I tried to help her, it was clear that she had a very myopic understanding of life. She is typically the type that is taken advantage of because she is still a child.

In Hurungwe, there is a 12-year-old boy who dropped out of school because he now wants to be a tobacco farmer.

He is doing wonders as a tobacco farmer, but that does not make him a man.

What enticed him to venture into tobacco farming is the money. I am afraid that very soon, he will be forced by opportunists to marry.

Yet, it is very clear that the decision to quit school was not the best because as a farmer, he will need education in order to plan, cost, do cash flows, read pesticide and fertiliser instructions.

First things first, children need to be given the space to grow up, to be allowed to be children, to go to school and be allowed to become responsible and informed citizens.

We once employed a maid from Mutoko, whom I shall call Chipo. She was 28 years old. She got married at 12 — as wife number four. Her story was a sad one. She had not even started her menstrual cycle, but she was already some old man’s wife.

She narrated to my wife how even when she had become the man’s latest acquisition, she would go and play children’s games with other children until her mother-in-law summoned her to remind her that she was now a married woman who should behave in a manner that is consistent with her new status or role.

Chipo said life was not good for her as the first three wives did not like her and they were in competition for resources including the husband’s attention.

Naturally, Chipo had serious complications with her pregnancy and she nearly died giving birth.

I think because of the complications while giving birth, she was never able to conceive again. This put pressure on her because in the polygamous marriage, resources were allocated according to the number of children a wife had.

Chipo and the other wives worked in the family field, which was controlled by the first wife. It was the first wife who supervised them and decided how much grain each wife should get after harvesting. Because Chipo had one child, she got very little even though she worked as hard as all the other wives.

Chipo ran away from the marriage when the husband inherited wife number five from his dead brother.

Partly she was worried about contracting Aids, but also she was beginning to realise that she had made a very bad decision that had trapped her in a marriage that used women as sex objects.

Chipo’s wish was to go back to school and become a police officer.

Unfortunately, when she ran away from Mutoko, she continued to communicate with the husband who sweet-talked her into reconciliation.

I haven’t heard what happened to her eventually, but a decision she made when she was only 12 years old ruined her life.

She is failing to break free and make a new start. I fear for her daughter who was also 12 years old at the time Chipo was working for us.

There is a proverb which says a short woman is not a girl. Equally, a tall girl is not a woman.

President Mugabe, speaking at the opening of the Child Parliament last week, said, “It is clear that we still need to do more so that our society allows our young women to grow and reach their fullest potential. Child marriages cause irreparable damage to young people.

“Early marriages rob the married youngsters of the valuable experience of childhood. They also deny them of their right to personal development, which includes education.”

Let us tighten our laws and muzzle the mouths of wolves stalking our little red riding hoods.