By Patience Maganzo
Harare, Zimbabwe (News Of The South) -The marginalisation of women was the order of the day, especially in the 20th century and earlier, where women used to be married off from about 12 years of age.
Women empowerment, through education, has tried to abolish such malpractices, and laws that fight for women have been put in place. Advocacy groups, for instance, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association, Musasa and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, to mention but a few in Zimbabwe, have been trying to emancipate women in the country, to eradicate the marginalisation of women.
The King of Swaziland has 15 wives and 25 children whilst his father had more than 70 wives. It has been reported that he recently passed a law for marrying five or more wives so that every woman gets a husband. Failure to comply with this, the perpetrator may face a life sentence since the government is said to have also offered to pay for the marriage ceremonies as well as houses.
King Mswati denies these allegations made. His spokesperson stated that the journalist reported unverified news. It was reported that his justification for having many wives and making that law was because women outnumber men by large a margin, hence the need of an intervention such that every woman gets a husband. Having a law stipulating how many wives a man should have does not seem fair as marriage needs to be a choice on both parties. During the economic situation of their country, how will one then take care of such a responsibility, the children and many wives, after having a marriage ceremony paid for them? It would hence be unwise act.
Currently, Swaziland population stands at; 671 532 males and 693 159 female, according to the live population. The 2017 census in Swaziland recorded by the United Nations; 652 127 females and 531 111 males. This clearly dismisses the claim that women outnumber men by far.
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