The cabinet on Thursday approved the Marriages Amendment Bill, which will see the repeal and replacement of the Customary Marriages Act (Chapter 5:07) and the Marriages Act (Chapter 5:11).
The proposed amendment will, among a plethora of other things, licence civil partnerships which are not classified as marriage under current laws.
Commenting on the development, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Publicity, Ndavaningi Nick Mangwa said:
Zimbabwean culture and attendant attitudes changing fast. Zimbabwe is going to license Civil Partnerships as marriages under the Marriages Act and nobody bats an eyelid! There was a time when there would have been outcries of “They are promoting kuchaya mapoto(co-habitation)”.
The new law will outlaw same-sex marriages, and child marriages as well as recognise marriages solemnised by “mapostori” and Muslim clerics.