Mnangagwa rejects small house clause

President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Cabinet on Tuesday has recommended to Parliament that Section 40 of the Marriages Amendment Bill, which refers to "civil partnerships" be removed, after noting that it goes against the country's cultural and Christian norms.

The proposed section 40 of the Marriages Act states that one can enter into a civil partnership with any person of the opposite sex, who is above the age of 18, despite their being married under chapter 5:11.
In a post cabinet briefing on Tuesday evening, a government official said the proposal by the section undermines the marriage institution.

"Marriage creates a status in a person, when two people meet and get married, their status in law changes, they have a new status that of married people, that status comes with certain rights and obligations which the parties to that marriage can enforce against each other and against the world as a whole.

"When two people just move and live together, the rights they have are the rights they have as individuals, the living together does not confer any additional rights upon them. A person who enters into such an arrangement and is thereafter left by the other party, can only enforce such rights as individuals because they have not acquired any additional rights by entering into that arrangement.," said the official.

"There is nothing that the authorities or the state can do to protect them from what I may term the deliberateness of their own action. They are aware of what they are doing, they are aware how those types of relationships are viewed by society and that the law does not recognise them so people should not cry foul and say they are not being protected because there is virtually no additional rights to protect except the rights they have always enjoyed as individuals in terms of our constitution."  

Below is the Section 40 of the Marriage Amendment Bill
40. Civil Partnerships
A relationship between a man and a woman who—
(a)are both over the age of eighteen years; and
(b)have lived together without legally being married to each other; and
(c)are not within the degrees of affinity or consanguinity as provided in section 7; and
(d)having regard to all the circumstances of their relationship, have a relationship as a couple living together on a genuine domestic basis;
shall be regarded as being in a civil partnership for the purposes of determining the rights and obligations of the parties on dissolution of the relationship and, for this purpose, sections 7 to 11 of the Matrimonial Causes Act [Chapter 5:13] shall mutatis mutandis apply on the dissolution of any such relationship.
2) The circumstances referred to in paragraph (d) may include—
(a)the duration of the relationship;
(b)the nature and extent of their common residence;
(c)whether a sexual relationship exists;
(d)the degree of financial dependence or interdependence, and any arrangements for financial support, between them;
(e)the ownership, use and acquisition of their property;
(f)the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life;
(g)the care and support of children;
(h)the reputation and public aspects of the relationship.
(3) No particular factor in relation to any circumstance may be regarded as necessary in determining whether or not the persons concerned have a civil partnership.
(4) A court determining whether a civil partnership exists is entitled to have regard to such matters and to attach such weight to any matter, as may seem appropriate to the court in the circumstances of the case.
(5) A civil partnership exists notwithstanding that one or both of the persons are legally married to someone else or are in another civil partnership.