NOEL IYOMBWA writes
A sub chief in Samfya District in Luapula Province said that early marriages were proving difficult to end in his area because some parents were in support of them.
Sub Chief Kabongo, of the Kabende tribe, in Chief Kalasa Mukoso’s area, has also appealed to government to repeal the law in witchcraft in order to be able to punish those involved in the vice.
The sub chief told The Sun in an interview that some parents last month threatened to burn his house after he removed a 14 year old girl from an early marriage and made the law breakers pay a goat as penalty.
“It has become hard to fight early marriages because the parents are the ones organizing them,” he said.
Sub Chief Kabongo bemoaned that the high number of bars in his area which he said was also contributing to promoting early marriages.
Meanwhile, the sub chief has appealed to government to revise the law on witchcraft so that people found to be practicing it could be prosecuted.
He said there was an increased number of people in his area who were masquerading as traditional doctors in order to extort money from people.
He said that some of the ‘witchdoctors’ had even gone to the extent of using poisonous substances as a way to cleanse suspected wizards. He narrated an incident when a suspect recently died in his area after he was forced to drink poison to cleanse him of witchcr aft.
