The resurfacing of forced marriages in rural Eastern Cape has raised alarms among advocacy groups including the Commission for Gender Equality. This follows the recent incident of a 14-year-old girl who was abducted and forced to marry an older man in Elliotdale.
The young girl has since been rescued.
She says after she was forced into marriage over a year ago, she has failed grade eight and force to quit school.
“I am not happy because I got married at the age of 13 and I should be at school. I was forced to marry an older unemployed man. I always have a headache because I’m thinking about the situation I’m in; not going to school at my age. I can’t bear being married at my age when I should be at school so that I can have a bright future.”
Meanwhile, Eastern Cape Provincial co-ordinator at the Commission for Gender Equality, Nceba Mrwebo says people who practice ukuthwala violate the rights of children.
“When this practice is done, it is done in violation of other rights that are signed in the constitution; right to human dignity, right to security, sexual reproductive right. But there are other pieces of legislation that promote the rights of the children and also put it as an offence to have sexual intercourse with a minor and that could lead to a statutory rape charge.”
