GOVERNMENT has opposed a High Court application filed by child rights activists seeking to compel the Johane Marange Apostolic Church to launch a campaign against child marriages within the sect.
In the application early this month, the applicants, Masvingo resident Sharon Moffat, Legal Resource Foundation and Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe stated that they wanted the Marange Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Churches Council to display anti-child marriage messages at every place of worship or shrine for 19 consecutive weeks.
The application followed a public outcry over an increase in child marriages and sexual abuse in the apostolic sects after a 14-year-old girl, Anna Machaya, died in July after giving birth at a Johane Marange shrine in Bocha, Mutare.
The Marange Apostolic Church of St Johane and the Apostolic Churches Council were cited as the first and second defendants respectively.
