GIRLS as young as 12 must be listened to by the courts if they wish to start families with older men because they are capable of giving consent to sex, Prosecutor-General Mr Johannes Tomana said on this very day last year, shortly before first lady Grace Mugabe began attacking him, a development that has seen him lose his job and threatened with imprisonment.
Risking the ire of child rights campaigners, Mr Tomana defended the courts for refusing to jail child sex predators who can prove that there was “consent”.
Zimbabwe’s top prosecutor says he also finds no problem with child molesters who escape with community service sentences serving their punishment at schools — with potentially hundreds more victims.
Tomana’s extraordinary intervention came after MPs and children’s rights advocates demanded legislative reforms to enhance legal protection for children under the age of 16, with the courts increasingly accepting that children between 12 and 16 are capable of giving consent to sex.
Zimbabwe’s age of consent is 16. Mr Tomana told The State Media that school dropouts, in particular, should be allowed to marry even at a young age because they have no “alternative”. Sending their abusers to jail would ruin their lives, he said.
“If young girls were to be asked what they prefer, most would say they should be allowed to have sex after turning 12.
“It’s assumed that the girl child’s independent decisions start at an age that those that are speaking want to fix, but if you go out there you’ll find out that some of them may want to start out in life early,” the Prosecutor General said, speaking on Wednesday during a visit to Bulawayo.
Mr Tomana says with a socio and economic environment that creates hopelessness in young girls, largely through lack of formal education, it is unfair to demand of teenagers to defer sexual encounters with men.
“If you look at it, we don’t have a framework for example, where we can guarantee that all our girl children are usefully engaged before they actually get above 18 years, we don’t have that,” he explained.
“We’ve nine-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds who’re actually not in school, who’re not doing anything for example. What are we saying to them? We say you can’t even do this [have sex], when the environment is not giving them alternative engagements? What are we talking about?
“You need to be able to be holistic about it. If we educate our girl child universally up to, for example, where they get to the age of 18 in an environment where you guarantee that they’re not abused, then we’re talking. But to simply say ‘no such and such conduct’ for any girl say below the age of 16, I think we’ve not asked ourselves what we’re saying about that girl who would rather prefer to lead their life in the direction of getting married.
“Should they just sit there and wait until they get to about 21 doing nothing? Is that what you’re saying? You don’t have anything that they should be engaged in while they wait to become the age. What do you want them to do because in some cultures, for example, they value marriage more than anything else because when your girl child is married, you’ve achieved what any father or mother would want to expect in their girl child.
“If, for example, we’re able to marry off our child at 15 and she’s married, are you saying that should not happen even where, for example, there’s nothing else that that girl could be doing? Is that what you are saying?
“We need to look at it in a very practical, wholesome way, and I think it’s important to talk to the girl child. I want to say they’re very sensible people, and I know girls develop faster than boys and they mature faster than boys.
“Are we saying we should continue talking on their behalf when they’re there? Do we just change these laws to suit ourselves and our dreams that have nothing to do with addressing the real conditions that they live in?”
Tomana’s liberal views around child marriage will alarm activists who only this week highlighted the problem of child marriages as Zimbabwe joined the rest of Africa in marking the Day of the African Child on Tuesday.
The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) revealed that Zimbabwe, along with Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Niger and Chad had the highest prevalence of child marriages on the continent.
And according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in its State of the World’s Children Report (2015), Mashonaland Central leads in child marriages with 50 percent. In second place is Mashonaland West with 42 percent, Masvingo 39 percent, Mashonaland East 36 percent, Midlands 31 percent, Manicaland 30 percent, Matabeleland North 27 percent, Harare 19 percent, Matabeleland South 18 percent while Bulawayo has the least prevalence with about 10 percent.
Tomana insists the current legal framework protecting children from sexual abuse in sections 64 and 70 of the Criminal Law (Codification Act and Reform) is sufficient and compliant with section 81 of the new Constitution, although some lawyers, notably Harare lawyer Chris Mhike, argue otherwise.
He said: “The advocacy that we’re having now is that even at 16, let’s just treat them as rape. Now, is that going to achieve the objective that we’re clamoring for the girl child?
“I think that’s the question that should be answered by everybody who’s in interested in addressing this situation and I think the girl child herself must talk.”
Tomana says he does not “see any harm” in convicted child sex predators performing community service sentences in schools where there is a real risk of carrying out more sex attacks on young girls.
He argued: “You see, the idea is to embarrass you, when we punish you the idea is to bring you down to mother earth. Now, if a whole man like me for example is seen cutting grass in front of a school and everybody is saying ‘that’s a criminal’, don’t you think that reduces me to my correct kind of level?
“I’m not scary to anyone else because I’ve been reduced to my proper size. I’m no longer a threat to anyone because I’m actually under supervision, you know… So I don’t see any harm in that.” -State Media
12 Replies to “Tomana: Sex With Girls (12) Perfectly OK”
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idiot paedophile at its best he must be one of the abusers. clat. Kudzvanyirira vanasikana kunge vanhu vekumabvazuva hamunyari mboto dzevanhu. You were borne of a woman and you bark like that nxa
idiot paedophile at its best he must be one of the abusers. clat. Kudzvanyirira vanasikana kunge vanhu vekumabvazuva hamunyari mboto dzevanhu. You were borne of a woman and you bark like that nxa
Munhu uyu, dzakati kwesere here. Mazwi ake akanongedza ku a child molester pachazvo. Haadaro achibata vana here munhu uyu?
Kuita prosecutor ungapiwa hake basa iroro, asi pamwe wakasoo royiwa abate mwana wevaridzi!
Constitution inomboti kudini?
Batai munhu uyo…!
Munhu uyu, dzakati kwesere here. Mazwi ake akanongedza ku a child molester pachazvo. Haadaro achibata vana here munhu uyu?
Kuita prosecutor ungapiwa hake basa iroro, asi pamwe wakasoo royiwa abate mwana wevaridzi!
Constitution inomboti kudini?
Batai munhu uyo…!
I am truly saddened by such line of thought from a man who is supposed to be educated to a good standard. Instead of coming up with other solutions to empower our girls in the event that they fail to achieve a good education, you think it fit to pass them on to paedophiles for sex??? At such a tender age??
Not everyone can be an intellect, that’s understandable but for goodness sake teach the girls other life skills. You rather choose to burden them with children and cripple their minds to think they are good for nothing else but child bearing. You are nothing but a disgrace to Zimbabwe Tomana and you deserve to rot in jail for such crooked thoughts.
That is a point Prosecutor, the other issue that you should also consider is termination of pregnancy, the girl or woman should be asked, let her talk and decide, having a child should be a choice you should not be forced into, if your finances do not allow, or if you do not have a committed partner, having and looking after a child is serious business that you should join if you are ready- consider this seriously lets get rid of yesteryear laws
@Mbizi
Thank you for your response. Yes, that’s where the problem is. The prosecutor, you and me know the problem. But we are all quiet about it. I think that’s the real problem. Unless we debate about it first in the family, then the village, the district, the province and then government, we will not have any effect. If you accept my line of thought, it then means that we are all guilty of dereliction of duty. In your first correspondence, you intimated that there are many single mothers in the country. For them to escalate to those high numbers, is because people like you and me and the prosecutor have decided to be quiet and let it be. It all starts with us. When good men keep quiet, this is what results. Hapana wekupengera except yourself.
I would be happier to read an attempt at a solution from you. I am waiting…..
“There’s no national plan for taking care of our school dropouts in that infantile age group” there is the problem that must be addressed, not to say haaa because we dont have a solution let them consent to sex! why is there no prevention of dropouts?why is there no welfare for these children from the state, dropping age of consent does not remedy the solution it promotes abuse. Why is the age been dropped to 12? you still fail to answer that question, what then is the difference between a 12 year old and a 10 year old grade 5 and grade 7? both can claim to be in love both can be manipulated into believing its consentual. Do you have a form 1 girlfriend because your logic truely baffles the mind. Solve the problem as you said put the girl child first in society instead of creating disgusting makeshift solutions like zim life is hard so let them get married.
Hello Mbizi Heart
First and foremost, I do not see the reason for hate speech and foul language. This is a forum for discussion. Even if we do not agree on issues, why would you accentuate it with such vitriol?
Anyway, because you were already needlessly in rage, you missed my point and that of the prosecutor. You open your post with a wrong statement. You qualify your wrong opening statement in your second sentence. There are many single mothers in Zim because of the placement of the age of consent. So then, you have no argument. The prosecutor is saying that as a nation, we have not given thought to how to look after our 12 year olds. And this is where we, you included, have failed our children. There’s no national plan for taking care of our school dropouts in that infantile age group. They end up wanting to escape from the volatile and ingracious society that we, you included, have created for them. They take a decision to trust in older men for security and protection from the harsh environment that we, you included, have failed to manage. This is normal human behavior.
But that’s not the point we are making. The point is what happens when the 12 year old girl has consented to a sexual relationship with an older person. The prosecutor is saying that the man must be given a community service sentence that exposes him as a predator while he is given chance to repent. I am saying that the law must enforce the two to marry without the advent of jail. If the girl got pregnant, sending the man to jail will wound the girl more, the child even more, and the girls parents will have to look after them. Meanwhile the man is languishing in prison. You can see that the family unit has been broken by the law that is meant to protect it.
I do not have the devil in me.
the law must protect the girl child by placing age of consent at 18!!!! how many single mothers are there in Zim? what legal stance can you take to force marriage in a country were traditionally you can pay damage and leave. Let us not accomodate child rapists, protecting the girl child by letting her have sex at age 12 (grade 7) You must have a brain tumor like the prosecutor. Would you let your 12 year old baby girl have sex with a man your age?? madness. So if she gets pregnant at 11years the rapist still goes to jail am i wrong? and the child still suffers, so why age of consent at 12! the devil is in you brother
Thank you Prosecutor. I agree with you all the way. Let the girl child talk. If she does not want to get involved, she abstains and is well protected by the law. But if she consented, then the law must ensure that the man MARRIES the girl, and ensures that he looks after her and the constraints. It hurts more when the man tries to run away from the responsibility and/or the courts unjusifiably removes the man to the prisons. Why, because in either scenario, the girl behind to suffer. The law must protect the girl child from suffering by forcing the man to provide for her. The nation may shout but it must sit down and think about this. Think about it. Our laws punish the girl, the unborn child, the newly born baby and the forstering parents buy throwing the responsible perpetrator in jail. The law must protect not punish the victims of early sexual encounters. If the law clearly amplified that any consensual sex escapades with a woman MUST end up in a permanent bond then there will be lower cases of such. It serves as a better deterrent than the present scenes. Let’s think about this before shouting abusive language against each other. @Ernst Madumbe, what a foul language. Think again and apologize. Then you might remain a man.
Sick ZANU PF idiot!