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Is Sex Consensual if She’s 16?

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BY GAMUCHIRAI MASIYIWA 

When a friend offered her a place to stay, Pamela said yes impulsively, without asking any questions. This was months after she left her home in rural Masvingo in southeastern Zimbabwe, escaping her abusive stepmother. She initially worked as a domestic helper in Harare, but within six months, her employer let her go, saying she did not have money to pay her. After losing her job, Pamela was desperate to find a place to live and food to eat. Just then, she remembers her friend saying in Shona: “Unongoitawo yandiri kuita.” (“Just follow my lead and do what I do.”)

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It was only when Pamela moved in with her friend, whom she had met while fetching water at a community borehole in an informal settlement south of Harare, where they both lived, that she realized the woman was a commercial sex worker. The woman took Pamela to a low-cost nightclub, commonly found in high-density areas here, and told her she could sleep with older men and get paid in return. Pamela followed her friend’s lead. But one day, one of the clients she picked up at a bar — after his paid session was over — forced himself on Pamela without protection and raped her. Before she could even make sense of the abuse she went through, the 16-year-old realized she was pregnant. Pamela, now 18, prefers to use only her first name for fear of stigma.

While child protection laws in Zimbabwe protect children under the age of 16, they crowd out those like Pamela who fall in the bracket between 16 and 18 years of age. In 2020, just around the time Pamela met the man who raped her, the government was taken to court by two activists challenging the constitutionality of certain sections in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act with respect to sexual exploitation of children in the country. In 2022, the highest court in the country struck down as unconstitutional provisions in the act that put the age of consent for sex at 16, conflicting with the legal age for marriage at 18. The court gave the government one year from June 2022 to set a law that protects all children from sexual exploitation in accordance with the Zimbabwe Constitution. Until then, those like Pamela who end up impregnated — or, as happens in many cases, married off at an early age — fall between the cracks, with no legal protection.

Someone Pamela confided in suggested she go to the police and report the rape, but the teenager wasn’t sure how she could explain her situation or her choices. Not only did she think she “chose” this life for herself, the man who raped her threatened her, saying if she ever spoke about this to anyone, she’d have to pay a heavy price.“There is a thin line between consensual sex and sex exploitation,” says Rudo Magwanyata, advocacy and research coordinator at Shamwari Yemwanasikana, a community-based organization that advocates for girls’ rights. The biggest challenge, she says, is that in Zimbabwe age of consent, which refers to the minimum age at which a person is considered to have the legal capacity to consent to sexual intercourse, is 16. “Because she is 16, she can consent. But that doesn’t mean that she is having consensual sex. She does it for the promised benefits that come after,” Magwanyata says.

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No one forced her into sex work, but Pamela says she didn’t have a choice either. She and her friend pooled their earnings to pay for rent and food. The work didn’t pay much. At most, she would get $5 and sometimes it was as little as $1.50. “But I had no other choice because I needed the money,” Pamela says.

On average, 646 women are sexually abused in Zimbabwe every month, and 1 in 3 girls are raped or sexually assaulted before they reach the age of 18, according to a 2020 brief published by the International Commission of Jurists, an organization that protects and promotes human rights through the rule of law. Caroline Masibango, a paralegal at Justice for Children, a nongovernmental organization that provides legal aid to children, says it’s not easy to seek justice in such cases because of the lower age of consent law. “When you come across such cases, sometimes you end up leaving them, just because there is no real assistance that is there for them,” says Masibango. She says in the end, left on their own, these children end up getting pregnant, dropping out of school or trapped in marriages that are often abusive.

During the country’s coronavirus lockdown in early 2021, nearly 5,000 teenagers became pregnant. In August 2020 the country amended the Education Act to prohibit state schools from expelling pregnant students. Still, according to the 2021 Primary and Secondary Education Statistics Report, 29,593 girls out of 549,504 — over 5% — dropped out of secondary school that year.

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Even if the law prohibits their expulsion, “the societal stigma” forces these girls out of school, says Kudzai, another single teenage mother who also prefers to use only her first name. She says as soon as she realized she was pregnant after being raped by her neighbor for months, she quit school because she had become a “laughingstock,” and people’s constant ridiculing stares depressed her. Just like Pamela, Kudzai is also barely making ends meet, particularly since there is now another mouth to feed. When her neighbor raped her, Kudzai was 15 years old, giving her legal protections; but like Pamela, she didn’t report the case to police. “My aunt said because I willingly went to the man’s house, it was not possible to report the matter to the police,” she says.Debra Mwase, programs manager at Katswe Sistahood, a movement that advocates for young women’s sexual and reproductive health rights, says in a relationship, the man can force a child who is at least age 16 to have sex and then use the defense that they were in a relationship and had agreed to have sex. “What worries me the most is that most of these people are in a position of authority, and children respect people in authority,” she says.

Meanwhile, the clock ticks on the 12-month deadline for a new law. “Time is fast running out, and the government may not be able to come up with the law within the set-out timeline,” says Lovemore Madhuku, a professor at the University of Zimbabwe’s faculty of law.

Before the deadline arrives, the government must consult all stakeholders, publish a proposed bill and present the bill in Parliament. All this can take months or years, depending on the level of debate and interest of politicians in the bill. If no headway is made, the government will have to seek an extension or be in contempt of court.

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The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, charged with drafting the proposed law and presenting it to Parliament for approval, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Sitting inside a small wooden structure in Hopley, an informal settlement in the south of Harare, Pamela holds her 1-year-old daughter. The young mother’s green blouse is torn and her face is frail. “I am now surviving on scavenging for plastics which I sell to recycling companies. I get about from $1 to $1.50 a day, but it’s not enough to cater for my needs,” she says. What she earns now is only enough for barest survival, and far from what she had imagined her life to be. As a child, she dreamed of becoming a teacher. Today, instead of blaming her abuser, she wishes her life had been different. “Maybe if I had the guidance of my mother, if my mother was alive, I would not have ended up where I am now,” she says.Global Press Journal 

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Tens of Thousands in Zimbabwe Go Hungry as the Rains — and US Aid — Hold Back

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Tanayeishe Musau eats baobab porridge after school at his home in Mudzi, Zimbabwe, where the dish has become a daily staple amid worsening drought and hunger. Once a simple supplement, baobab porridge is now a primary meal for families like his, following widespread food shortages and the suspension of international aid.

BY LINDA MUJURU

This story was originally published by Global Press Journal.

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Agnes Tauzeni stands on her parched field. She is a mother to two children, and is expecting another. But now, in a time that might otherwise have been joyful, her hopes wither like the struggling crops before her.

 

Three times she’s gambled on the rains; three times the sky has betrayed her. Her first two plantings failed. The soil was too dry to sustain life. Though her third attempt yielded a few weak shoots, they offered little promise of a meaningful harvest. El Niño-driven droughts have disrupted once-reliable rains, leaving Tauzeni’s family and many like hers struggling to feed themselves.

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“I am always hungry,” Tauzeni says.

 

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She worries about the health of her unborn child, based on how little nutrition she consumes herself.

 

Adding to this, food aid, previously funded by the US Agency for International Development, halted suddenly in January. That transformed what was already a struggle into a desperate battle for survival.

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The food aid ended when US President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, issued an executive order that paused nearly all US foreign aid, most of which was administered by USAID. That agency is now all but defunct.

 

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Food aid in Zimbabwe was an ongoing area of funding for USAID. In November 2024, the agency announced $130 million for two seven-year programs, implemented by CARE and Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, that would provide food aid and other related support to areas of Zimbabwe most in need. The programs, which stopped, were just part of an ongoing slate of activities designed to help Zimbabwe’s neediest people.

 

About 7.6 million people in Zimbabwe — nearly half the country’s population — need humanitarian assistance, according to a 2025 UNICEF report. Of those, nearly 6 million, like Tauzeni, rely on subsistence farming.

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Through the support of organizations with funding from USAID, people previously received cereals, edible seeds, oil and food vouchers.

 

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“A sudden withdrawal can put the entire community in a dire situation,” says Hilton Mbozi, a seed systems and climate change expert.

 

Tauzeni recalls that her community used to receive food supplies such as beans, cooking oil and peanut butter to help combat malnutrition.

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When Tauzeni got married in 2017, her fields promised abundance. Her harvests were plentiful, and her family never lacked food. Now, those memories feel like whispers from another world. The past two agricultural seasons, those harvests have been devastatingly poor.

 

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With an empty granary and dwindling options, Tauzeni’s family survives on the same food every day: baobab porridge in the morning and sadza with wild okra in the evening. But Tauzeniworries whether even this will be on the table in the coming months.

 

“The little maize I have, I got after weeding someone else’s crops, but that won’t take us far,” she says.

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Tauzeni says a 20-kilogram (44-pound) bag of maize costs US$13 in her village, an amount out of reach for her. Her only source of income is farming. When that fails, she has no money at all.

 

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Hunger like Tauzeni experiences is widespread. Some families now eat just once a day.

 

Headman David Musau, leader of Musau village where Tauzenilives, says some people in his village did not plant any seeds this season, fearing losses due to the low rainfall. The government provides food aid inconsistently, usually 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of wheat per person for three months.

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“It’s not enough, but it helps,” he says.

 

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But without any other food aid, survival is at stake, he says. “People will die in the near future.”

 

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Zimbabwe’s new mothers face extortion for ‘free’ child health cards

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Photo credit: Gamuchirai Masiyiwa, GPJ Zimbabwe

BY GAMUCHIRAI MASIYIWA

Summary: The quiet return of maternity fees and the black-market sale of essential documents put extra burdens on mothers as they struggle to navigate a broken system.

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First-time mother Connie Jowastands with her 3-month-old baby nestled against her back, chatting with other mothers in line. Like many women at this crowded clinic in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb, Jowa is trying to get a Child Health Card, which was unavailable when she gave birth at a public hospital, and was still out of reach at her local clinic. Health cards are mysteriously out of stock.

 

But they can be bought under the table, if you know who to ask and are willing to pay.

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Zimbabwe’s Child Health Cards, meant to be free to new mothers, are crucial documents that track babies’ growth, vaccinations and medical histories. Without them, each clinic visit becomes a reset button. Inquiry into the child’s medical history starts from scratch. Since July 2024, the cards have disappeared from health facilities across Harare’s central hospitals and 42 council clinics — even though the card’s producers say they’re making enough to meet demand. This artificial shortage has birthed a shadow market where clinic staff quietly sell this essential document to desperate mothers. This sort of nickel-and-dime bribery exposes deep cracks in a health care system that’s already failing the most vulnerable people.

 

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What started as a clandestine operation has become an open secret.

 

“When cards arrive at a clinic, they’re kept by the sister in charge. But it’s usually nurse aides or junior staff who sell them, working in cahoots with other staff members,” says Simbarashe James Tafirenyika, who leads the Zimbabwe Municipality’s Nurses and Allied Workers Union.

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Someone who sells 100 cards can pocket around US$500, she says, and none of that money goes to the government of the council.

 

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The going rate for the Child Health Card is US$5, say several mothers who spoke to Global Press Journal.

 

Medical Histories on Scraps of Paper

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When the system works as designed, every mother receives a Child Health Card when her baby is born. Now, most mothers must track their infants’ medical histories on scraps of paper.

 

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Harare’s council clinics alone deliver more than 3,000 babies every month, with each mother left scrambling for documentation.

 

“I feel hurt,” Jowa says. “I want to know what vaccines my child has received and their purposes, but I just can’t get that information.”

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A nurse aide assistant at one of the council clinics has witnessed this shadow market.

 

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“If a nurse is selling, they ask the mother to be ‘skillful’ if they need the card,” says the assistant, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. In Zimbabwe, “skillful” is a common euphemism for paying small bribes.

 

While the Ministry of Health and Child Care is supposed to supply the cards for free, Prosper Chonzi, the City of Harare’s director of health, admits supplies have been erratic for six months and that people have complained about being forced to purchase these cards. Clinic workers may be exploiting the known shortage and coordinating among themselves to sell the cards rather than providing them for free, he says.

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“We can’t rule that out,” he says.

 

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The card shortage coincides with the quiet return of maternity fees in public hospitals. Though not officially announced, hospitals have begun billing mothers after delivery — a policy change the government would neither confirm nor deny.

 

High Inflation, More Corruption

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Between 2011 and 2024, more than 1 million pregnant women in the country delivered babies for free at health care clinics, under a scheme called results-based financing. Maternal mortality rates dropped during that time.

 

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But these gains, partly achieved through better access to safe delivery services, face new hurdles as budget constraints and economic pressures reshape the health care landscape.

 

Even in 2021, a study from Transparency International Zimbabwe surveyed over 1,000 people in Zimbabwe and found that 74% had been asked to pay a bribe while trying to access health care services. A feeling of being underpaid amidst a deteriorating economy and high inflation was a key driver among health workers who solicitated bribes, which has been a rising trend, according to the study.

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“The motivation for earning an extra income is strong especially in countries with a high rate of inflation,” the study states.

 

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Zimbabwe’s health care system faces chronic challenges, including an exodus of health workers to other countries, inadequate funding, drug shortages, obsolete infrastructure and more. In 1991, the government introduced user fees across public institutions as part of an economic structural adjustment program. The government abolished the fees in 2011, only to partially reinstate them around 2013.

 

Prudence Hanyani, a community activist in Harare, says the reintroduction of user fees in public hospitals will burden women who already shoulder extra costs, like paying for midwives, so they can get better treatment when giving birth.

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“Maternal health services should be free,” she says, “because giving birth is a service for the nation that contributes to the country’s population.”

 

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Mothers Pay the Price

 

Valerie Shangwa, who gave birth four and a half months ago at a private maternity hospital, still has no card for her daughter.

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“You know how difficult it is to keep a paper,” she says. “When nurses ask about last month’s weight, you end up guessing, and that distorts the whole record.”

 

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Charlton Prickise, technical director at Print Flow, says his company sells Child Health Cards only to government-authorized health facilities and faces no shortages.

 

“The shortages mean health facilities simply aren’t coming to get them,” he says.

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Though Print Flow hasn’t detected leaks, Prickise recalls finding other versions of this card on the market two years ago, possibly from a nongovernmental organization. Print Flow isn’t the sole supplier of the cards, and they haven’t received any government orders recently.

 

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In a written response to Global Press Journal, Donald Mujiri, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Child Care, said the shortage of Child Health Cards is due to supply chain inefficiencies and insufficient donor funding. The cards, he says, are procured with government funding and aid from supporting partners such as the United Nations Children’s Fund. Nevertheless, Mujiri says, the ministry needs to strengthen the supply chain management system at all levels and proactively mobilize resources for procuring the cards.

 

Meanwhile, mothers wait — or pay the price. Faith Musinami, 26, delivered her daughter in July 2024. An orderly told her the clinic only had cards for boys, but if she wanted, they could organize one for US$5. Musinami had not budgeted for the cost. She sacrificed the last penny she had.

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This story was originally published by Global Press Journal.

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