THE 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), which started on November 25 and ended yesterday, evoke painful memories for Uzumba chief Mr Tonderai Douglas Nyajini.
In 2018, Chief Nyajini’s 13-year-old granddaughter, Tanaka, committed suicide after a clinical test revealed that she was six months pregnant.
The pregnancy is said to have resulted from a rape that took place after she had been drugged at a party.
“She had completed her Grade Seven examinations well and travelled to Harare to stay with her grandmother for the holidays. However, when she returned, I noticed that her physical outlook had changed. She did not have a history of indiscipline. As she continued with her Form 1, she had put on weight, which made me suspect that she was pregnant,” Chief Nyajini said.
On being asked whether she was pregnant, Tanaka denied the claims. However, Chief Nyajini noticed that his granddaughter’s tummy was growing.
“One of the days, council workers were paving a road leading to my homestead, so, before I left the house to engage them, I told my granddaughter to prepare to accompany me to the clinic. I told her I wanted to prove what I was suspecting,” he said.
Chief Nyajini would live to rue this brief moment, as, in between the time he left and returned, Tanaka had ingested a poisonous chemical.
“We sought treatment for the poison she had ingested. It was also revealed that she was six months pregnant. When the nurse quizzed her how the pregnancy came about, she said her glass of juice had been spiked at a party in Harare before she was raped,” said Chief Nyajini.
These revelations tore Chief Nyajini’s heart apart, but worse would unfold the following day, around 4am, at his homestead.
Tanaka’s condition deteriorated throughout the night and she was rushed to Maramba Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival, with tests later showing that the death was a result of the poison she had consumed.
“It’s painful. The saddest part of the story is I never got to know the man who drugged and raped her. She took the issue to the grave.”
Chief Nyajini blames himself for the way he handled the matter. He feels he could have treated it differently and saved Tanaka’s life.
Since then, Chief Nyajini has engaged in a drive to speak against child sexual abuse.
He and other traditional leaders in Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) have been visiting schools and churches, as well as attending community gatherings, to bring awareness to the public about child sexual abuse and GBV.
The chiefs — in partnership with the Rozaria Memorial Trust, a women’s rights protection organisation — launched the Chiefs’ Commitments on Promoting Child Protection and Ending Child Marriages programmes in UMP. They were also supported by the Ministries of Women Affairs, Community Small and Medium Enterprises Development; Local Government and Public Works; and Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.
A booklet containing the chiefs’ commitments has since been published. It says UMP is among the top districts with a high percentage of child marriages. In the publication, the chiefs commit themselves to ending child marriages, while applauding the Constitution and laws enacted to protect the rights of children.
The chiefs say child marriages had become prevalent in the district, and a high number of adolescent girls were dying while giving birth.
“We wrote this booklet of commitments as chiefs and the leadership of UMP, in partnership with various organisations. This was after officials from the Rozaria Memorial Trust approached us and wanted to find out our thoughts about child marriages.
“So, the principles also resonated with our view that it’s a bad culture, hence we need to help each other,” he said.
Recent police statistics show that minors were victims in 58 percent of the 435 rape cases recorded between January and September this year. In UMP, said Chief Nyajini, many families are protecting perpetrators of child marriages and abuse of girls.
“We have some Apostolic church groups that perpetrate child marriages. My plea is that these culprits should be jailed and not be granted amnesty,” he said.
A recent spike in child sexual abuse cases has left the nation in shock, with parents accused of being the guilty party.
A report on a nine-year-old Tsholotsho girl who recently gave birth to a baby through caesarean section after being raped, is one of the cases the nation is grappling with.
An eight-year-old from Bindura also fell pregnant after she was allegedly raped by two teenage brothers from the same area.
There is also a case before the courts of a couple who had allegedly been sexually abusing their two children aged nine and 11.
Last year, a 14-year-old girl, Annah Machaya, died while giving birth at a Johane Marange Apostolic Church shrine in Mafararikwa, Manicaland.
With young lives being lost through heinous acts, this year’s 16 days of activism against GBV national theme — “All lives matter: End gender-based violence now!” — encapsulates what the nation is dealing with.
Religious and cultural beliefs, which are under the custodian of traditional leaders, are among the leading contributory factors of GBV.
Rozaria Memorial Trust founder and African Union goodwill ambassador for the campaign to end child marriages, Dr Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, applauded the traditional leaders for their stance against GBV.
“Today, I am smiling. I am dancing because our traditional leaders are reclaiming the ethos of us being a people with good character. Congratulations chiefs,” she said.
She said, although the 16 days of activism against GBV ended yesterday, the campaign against the abuses is ongoing. – Sunday Mail
