Grace Mugabe says ‘Tomana must go’
Motor-mouth First Lady Grace Mugabe is back on the road. Just as she did last year in demanding the sacking of then Vice President Joice Mujuru in the run-up to the Zanu PF congress, “Hurricane Grace” as she was then called is now demanding the sacking of the Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana.
Tomana courted public anger last month when he appeared to suggest that 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.
Speaking during the commissioning of $3million worth of earth moving equipment and a ground breaking ceremony for housing stands in Kadoma the First Lady wasted no time in exploiting public opinion on the matter saying it was people with Tomana’s mind who stifle development in the country.
“We need people who talk sense not to say ‘I was misquoted’. Uchimbozvitaurirei? (Why say it in the first place?)” the First Lady said in Kadoma.
“Hatidi munhu anofarisa kana aripabasa. Kana usingazive zvekutaura, vhara muromo wako uende kumba kwako unwe tea nechingwa unyarare (We don’t want people who get carried away while at work. If you don’t know what to say, just shut up, go home and drink tea with bread in silence.)”
To wild applause from thousands of people gathered, she added: “We don’t want our country to be tainted in that way. That’s madness, and that person should be fired because his behaviour is rotten.
“Mukaona munhu anodaro ibhinya, ndiye ari kuita basa rekubhinya vanhu nekuti munhu musvinu, anemwana musikana, anepfungwa chaidzo haadaro.
“Tinokubhutsura isu vanaMai Mugabe kana zvatisvikira (If you see someone saying that [a 12-year-old can consent to sex], he’s a pervert. He’s the one in the business of abusing children because a rational person, someone who’s in charge of his mental faculties would never say that. We’ll kick you out).”
“After all this, someone says one can sleep with a 12-year-old. That is foolish! We don’t want that. We want to raise our children in a normal way and they should go to school,” the First Lady said.
Last month in an interview with the state media Tomana had said that girls who are out of school, even as young as nine, should be allowed to think “in the direction of getting married”.
He said: “It’s assumed that the girl child’s independent decisions start at an age that those that are speaking want to fix [16], but if you go out there you’ll find out that some of them may want to start out [having sex] in life early.
“We’ve nine-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds who’re not in school, who’re not doing anything for example. What are we saying to them? Then we say you can’t even do this [have sex], when the environment is not giving them alternative engagements? What are we talking about?
“… 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.”
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo (cabinet position still in the air) also took a dig at Tomana last month saying only “depraved and corrupt elements” think children under the age of 16 can consent to sexual intercourse.
The current legal age of consent in Zimbabwe is 16, but the country’s new constitution, introduced in 2013, says that those under 18 are “not capable of founding a family”, creating some ambiguity about the exact position of the law.
There is also a grey area being created by the amount of discretion judges are allowed in interpreting the law. According to figures provided by the United Nations, 4% of girls in Zimbabwe marry by the age of 15 and 30% by 18.
