30 Jul 2014

At least 67 per cent of Batswana women have experienced Gender Based Violence (GBV) in their lifetime.

This was revealed by Gender Links country manager, Ms Gomolemo Rasesigo during a gender equality workshop for Jwaneng Town Council female employees recently.

She said that these statistics come from a study conducted by Gender Links in collaboration with the Department of Gender Affairs, in which 44 per cent of men interviewed also admitted to have perpetuated this form of violence.

Consequently, Ms Rasesigo said this called for serious interventions to identify the root cause of the problem and find out why men commit violence.
“Our first step was to sensitise both men and women on GBV because this is a public concern. It is not only a violation of human rights, but also fuels the spread of HIV/AIDS,” she said.

She said that even though there are various forms of violence in Botswana such as domestic, physical, sexual assault, and financial abuse, sexual abuse of minors and incest, the most common form is domestic violence which happens within the home. Furthermore, she stated that emotional abuse was the most destructive type of violence because it has the potential to leave scars that last more than that of physical abuse.

“It can happen through verbal abuse and may lead to helplessness on the part of the victim. 

This form of abuse in also not easy to report because it is the woman’s word against that of the perpetrator, and usually there is not enough evidence to prove the case,” she explained. Ms Rasesigo urged attendants to make the prevention of gender based violence a community effort and report any forms of violence that they witness. 

She appealed to them to learn more about it and share the information with others in their communities.

For her part, Sub Inspector Wamakala of Jwaneng police said since 2008 some police officers were trained on gender based violence and to specifically deal with such incidents in an appropriate manner.

She said that in Jwaneng, the most common forms of violence reported include rape, defilement and different types of assaults.

Alcohol and drug abuse were found to be major contributory factors towards gender based violence. ENDS