Admark Moyo

Parental separation or divorce has troubled families for centuries. Being an adult solution to adult problems (marital disputes), divorce traditionally leaves children with no say over their destiny. Indeed, stakes are usually so high that child participation is an ancillary matter at divorce. Children are not consulted and when they are, the consultation is merely tokenistic. In response to the apparent reluctance (in both the private and public spheres) to elicit children s views on matters that affect them, the last thirty years have registered an unprecedented upsurge of scholarship on children s right to be heard or to decide. The United Nations-led body of jurisprudence, with its emphasis on the need to regard the child as an autonomous bearer of rights, poses enduring problems to adult conceptions of the family. This is particularly so in African societies; where emphasis on group solidarity, obedience and respect means that children are less assertive. Further, child custody largely depends on whether lobola (bride wealth) has been paid or whether the child is marital. Against this background, it is fitting to consider not only the extent to which children have the autonomy to choose their custodian but also the extent to which parents, or others with parental responsibility, have the right to overrule the wishes of children below the age of discretion or to force them to do what is in their best interests.