31 Mar 2016

The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu says issues of divorce rates and marriage conflicts fall under the mandate of the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security in terms of the Matrimonial Act, while the issue of child abuse is the responsibility of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in terms of the Children’s Act of 2009.

Mr Batshu said any other form of abuse is covered under the Penal Code.

He said with regard to marriages registered in Khwee and Mmea since their confirmation as Rural Area Development Settlements, Khwee has four while Mmea has three registered marriages.

The minister said the two settlements carry the said statistics mainly because there was preference to marry under the customary law rather than common law which generally has inconsistencies in registration.

He said the inconsistencies were further exacerbated by inadequacies of the law hence the ministry has commenced the process of amending the law to cause registration of both common and customary law marriages to be mandatory.

Mr Batshu said the statistics were a concern to him as failure to register customary law marriages compromises the quality of the national registers.

He said in light of the compromised quality of the national registers he was not in a position to explain how children in the settlements were affected. However, he noted that his ministry was currently in the process of amending the Marriages Act.

He said the ministry has also embarked on a universal registration campaign and an intensive outreach programme to mobilise the community to register.

The MP for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had asked the minister to appraise Parliament on the rates of divorce, marriage conflicts, women and children abuse and the number of marriages registered at Khwee and Mmea since the villages were confirmed RADP settlements.

He further asked why they carry such statistics and whether it concerns the minister or not.

He also asked if the findings affect children brought up in the two villages, and if so, how and what was the plan to address the problem and which year the villages were confirmed. ENDS