Zimbabwe warns of fake husbands on the loose

Zimbabwe has warned women to be wary of foreigners, especially from Bangladesh, who seek their hand in marriage saying most of them were criminals.

Registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede warned marriage officers to be on high alert, saying there was an increasing number of foreigners acquiring Zimbabwean identification particulars illegally.

He said, the criminals, mostly Asian, used the IDs to enter into marriages of convenience with Zimbabwean women.

“We have been having problems with people from Bangladesh,” Mr Mudede said.

“Marriage officers are strictly advised to be on the lookout when dealing with foreigners intending to marry locals.

“Members of the public are advised to liaise with our registration offices to thoroughly scrutinise documents of all foreigners who are intending to marry Zimbabwean women.”

He said foreigners should be cleared by the immigration department, the police and their embassy before entering into such marriages.

Africa and Asia

Last year, Zimbabwe banned mass weddings as part of efforts to curb fake marriages, which it said were on the increase.

The government blamed the increase in fake marriages on foreigners seeking residence permits.

Foreigners were now required to produce proof from their home countries that they were not married.

New computerised marriage certificates were also introduced last year to make it harder to counterfeit.

The Zimbabwean authorities accuse foreigners, mostly from Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, of entering into marriages of convenience to secure citizenship or residence permits.

The new certificates have space for full names and national identity numbers for witnesses and marriage officer’s date stamp.

Zimbabwe hosts a large number of refugees from Africa and Asia who mostly see the country as stepping stone to neighbouring South Africa.