28 Apr 2014

Effective elimination and reducing of the high number of gender-based violence (GBV) related cases recorded in Molepolole policing area can be achieved through the involvement of the community.

Speaking during a recent workshop on gender response and children’s act policies facilitated by Hope World Wide Botswana and Product Concern International, Ms Julia Mosikari of the Criminal Investigation Department in Molepolole said GBV was rampant throughout the community of Molepolole.

She said since the crime happened in the presence of the community members, the police could succeed through the input of the same community.

“It is our sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, nephew or nieces who are either victims or assailants. Moreover when such a crime is committed, there is always either an eye witness or someone who have knowledge or heard some sound or word which can assist the police during their investigations, but our challenge as police officers for a long time has been that people tend to keep quiet about such,” she said.

Ms Mosikari further pointed out that the reported cases were touching and horrific. She said in most cases, the details were so graphic and the most touching part during investigations was that these things would have been happening for a long time without being reported until a concerned passerby or neighbours reported such.

Tackling the statistic part of the GBV related cases, Sergeant Letlhogonolo Kgosidintsi of Molepolole police said this year, GBV offences had dropped drastically as compared to last year. He said this was due to the fact that the community through cluster policing was working hand in hand with the police to fight crime.

He said even though cluster policing reduced some offences such as rape, threat to kill, assault common, and unlawful wounding still occurred on a large scale something, which was of great concern.

He also said the statistics also indicate that there is a rise in offences of child care. He said the offence; failure to provide necessities to a child rose by four cases. He explained that in 2013, only nine cases were reported for the period of January – March while in 2014, during the same period, a total of 13 cases were reported.

He stated that cases of children are now being reported because now the community is aware that children have to be taken care of and their rights are to be respected.

He further stated that most of the offences like rape, murder and threat to kill are committed when people are drunk and therefore, they are not in a position to control them. He said rape is escalating at an alarming rate as well and advised people, more especially the youth to have someone to walk back home with especially when they had been out on a drinking spree at night.

Kgosidintsi further stated that the culprits of threat to kill and murder are jealous lovers and in most cases, the perpetrators cannot tell a concrete story as to why they committed the offence. He further emphasised that in passion killing or murder, a knife is always used as a weapon and the victims are brutally killed.

Concerning the children, Sergeant Kgosidintsi said defilement is a common occurrence. He said most of these cases are reported by relatives whereas the parents who supposed to take action would be there enjoying those small gifts that the child would have been enticed with by the perpetrators.

“In some cases, the report comes to our offices from the Magistrate court, clinics, schools when the child is already pregnant or having a child”, said Kgosidintsi. He said these goes back to the question of parenting styles.

He however said, as police they have put some strategies in place to help deal with GBV related cases, as the cases are currently treated with confidentiality and that when such cases are reported, a victim is assisted in privacy.

Meanwhile, the wives of Dikgosi, who attended the meeting vowed to work tirelessly and deal with all the GBV related cases.Ends