“Marriage officers will have to comply with this and if you don’t, jail is waiting for you.”

Zimbabwe has suspended all weddings indefinitely – reportedly in an effort to curb corruption and fraud. The ban on matrimony was revealed by the state-run Herald newspaper, SW Radio Africa reported yesterday.

Tobaiwa Mudede, the Zimbabwean registrar-general, said the move was to try to stop “marriages of convenience” where couples got married to entitle one partner – usually a man from Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo, critics claimed – to Zimbabwean citizenship.

Mudede announced weddings could be held once a new “biometric marriage” was introduced but it is unclear what that means.

Registry offices were turning couples away as early as last weekend

He also threatened anyone who goes ahead and performs a wedding ceremony, saying: “Marriage officers will have to comply with this and if you don’t, jail is waiting for you.”

The ban has not yet been given a time limit, leaving scores of weddings up in the air. Already this past weekend there were reports of wedding parties being turned away from registry offices across the country, with some reports indicating as many as 20 planned marriages at one magistrate’s court had to be cancelled.

[Source: IB Times, The Zimbabwean]