Inkosi Mtwalo of Mzimba on Wednesday warned that his office will not defend any of his juniors who find themselves on the wrong side of the law by marrying a young girl.
Mtwalo said this at Ezondweni Primary School during a commemoration ceremony of the International Day of the African Child which falls on June 16 every year.
During the event, Primary Education Advisor (Pea) of the area, Agness Msiska, said overtime, the battle against child marriages has proved difficult since local leaders take the lead in promoting bad cultural practices such as polygamy and Mbirigha— a practice whereby a man is given a younger sister to the first wife as a token of appreciation for taking good care of the older one.
According to Msiska it is even harder for child rights activists in the area to confront such chiefs because of tradition.
“The royalty conferred on chiefs among the Ngoni makes them almost untouchable. As such, we have a problem in the area which I am sure it’s in the whole district since most chiefs are fond of marrying young girls of school-going age as part of custom,” explained Msiska.
Inkosi Mtwalo said apart from the legal instruments, his office will take the issue head on and summon every culprit arguing people including chiefs must realise that times have changed.
“Governments are placing emphasis on the rights and education of the girl child. As local leaders we should be agents of change. I will take it upon myself to monitor and scrutinise my chiefs. This is not violating their rights to tradition but all I am saying is it is high time the girl child was eliminated from the equation,” the chief said.
He thus urged the traditional leaders to use their positions of influence to spur positive change in their communities.
The Day of the African child was inducted in 1991 in honour of children who took part in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 and this year’s theme is: Conflict and Crisis in Africa-protecting all children’s rights.”
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