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*New Marriage Law Promotes Adultery - Lawyers*

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Lawyers say the Marriages Act passed into law late in May by President Emmerson Mnangagwa promotes adultery.

The Act repealed the Marriages Act (Chapter 5:11) and Customary Marriages Act (Chapter 5:07) and introduced a civil partnership and a qualified civil marriage.

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The new law also recognises an unregistered customary law union as a marriage.

Speaking to NewsDay recently, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association director Abigail Matsvayi Pasipanodya said:

> We are… concerned that unregistered customary law unions (kuroorana pachivanhu) are not fully recognised, and that civil partnerships can co-exist with civil marriages with the effect of eroding the monogamous nature of civil marriages.

The Marriages Act stipulates that all marriages are entered into between a man and a woman above 18 years of age.

It also criminalises the marriage of children under 18 years and imposes heavy penalties on those who facilitate the marriage of underage people.

A lawyer, who spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity, said:

> The Act has brought some changes in that it has added marriages that were not initially recognised.

> It has brought in civil partnerships in that before, they were not supposed to be in any other relationship with any other person. That was taken as adultery.

> The new Act, however, brings relief to adultery in that a person who is married can have another relationship outside their marriage.

> In a way, the new Act addresses another gap where if a man had a small house in case of death, that family, when it came to property sharing, was left out.

> The property-sharing process only catered for the legal spouse, so it’s (Act) trying to address a problem of catering for both, however, creating other issues again.

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