29 May 2018

Residents of Kasane have been urged to report domestic violence and let the law take its course without interfering so that perpetrators can refrain from such acts.

In an interview with BOPA recently, Kasane court president Kgosi Thuso Wasetso said gender-based violence reinforces inequalities between men and women throughout the world.

He thus said bogosi was vexed by people, especially women, who report domestic violence and assault cases only to drop the charges before the offenders are brought to justice, which leads to offenders repeating the crimes.

Kgosi Wasetso said the reasons given are that perpetrators are the bread winners so if found guilty and sent to prison or lose their jobs, the family would struggle to survive.

He observed that domestic violence was mostly influenced by alcohol and drug abuse because the number of cases rise during weekends after people have consumed alcohol.

He said domestic violence had a lot of disadvantages in the community and could lead to passion killings, low performance at school by children who experience it at home and even low performance at work for adults who are abused.

Kgosi Wasetso also urged men to come out and report domestic violence, saying it had been observed that a lot of men shy away from reporting such cases, thinking society might deem them weak.

“There are a lot of unreported domestic violence cases. People tend to turn a blind eye. We encourage them to come forward and report even if they see it happening next door,” he noted.

He also urged depot owners to always observe operating hours and sell only the allowed type of traditional beer such as khadi, and to stay away from selling prohibited home brews.

The court president encouraged men to always drink responsibly and protect women and children because they are the vulnerable groups in the community, adding that even the Bible teaches men to protect and love women.

He said this could help Batswana to build loving and non-violent families, which produce non-violent children to lead the nation in the future. ENDS