Lobola Payment Still a Requirement for Zimbabwe Customary Marriages

An online fact-checking platform, asserts that lobola payment remains a prerequisite for registering a customary marriage under the recently enacted Marriages Act, which consolidates the Civil Marriages Act and the Customary Marriages Act.

Key Points:

• Lobola payment is not obligatory for civil marriages but is mandatory for customary law marriages.
• The Marriages Act of 2022, despite its recent gazetting, did not annul the requirement for lobola payment in customary marriages.
• Section 16 of the Marriages Act addresses the official registration of a customary law marriage, emphasizing that marriage officers must inquire about lobola payment during the registration process.
• Marriage officers are tasked with verifying whether lobola has been paid before officially registering a customary marriage.
• A civil marriage is monogamous, exclusively uniting two individuals, while a customary law marriage can be polygamous or potentially polygamous based on the customary law of the people involved.

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