A TRADITIONAL leader from Mudzi East has called for the scrapping off of children and spousal maintenance laws, claiming the facility was fuelling divorce cases and had been turned into a money-spinning venture by some divorced women.

BY MUNESU NYAKUDYA

Chief Mukota, born Manhando Tsuro, last week told NewsDay his traditional court was now presiding over at least four maintenance cases each month.

“Since March last year I have dealt with more or less than 60 cases of maintenance and every month we deal with four to six cases,” he said.

“This has become a greatest home wrecker in our society, because women can now just walk in and out of marriage or get pregnant willy-nilly and claim maintenance after all. Some men are now taking care of children that might not be theirs because of this law.

“I suggest that if it was possible we would remove maintenance to make sure that we restore our culture and values and women can stand up for their families,” Chief Mukota said.

He also claimed that the law had caused a spike in child marriages and teenage pregnancies.

“Some of these children are lazy. They don’t want to go to school or work hence they end up in night clubs and at the end claim maintenance. I have made it clear in my district that I will not take pregnancy issues that came from night clubs.

“I think we should put more effort in training our children rather that promoting such behaviour just for maintenance’s sake. Let us not drift away from our values. We see a lot of families getting destroyed because of these gender issues,” he said.

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