25 Nov 2019

The mining manager of Lucara Botswana Mr Kavis Kario has implored the public to take ownership of gender-based violence issues.

Mr Kario said on Friday during gender-based violence commemoration organised by Women in Media in partnership with Men’s Sector and Botswana Police Service.

Mr Kario cautioned the public against ignoring gender-based violence, saying if gender-based violence took place at home, it would affect children mentally.

He stated that victims of gender-based violence felt rejected and isolated and therefore too scared to report the case.

A real man, he said, should take social responsibility, citing that an abusive man could not be treated with respect.

He thus emphasised the need to encourage, promote and facilitate multi-sectoral cooperation.

“There is a need for gender-based violence activists to be visible.

It is essential for the society to change from the habit of teaching the boy-child that a man is supposed to be tough, but that crying is part of healing,” he said.

He said gender-based violence  was not all about physical abuse, but inclusive of even financial and social abuse.

Women In Media representative Ms Lame Chaba from Yarona FM said they believed journalism promoted social change and was much more than story-telling.

She said as they went around performing journalistic duties, they learnt that women and girls continued to experience domestic violence, brutal murder, rape and unwanted sexual remarks, harassment and assault in public.

She said Letlhakane area was mostly affected by offences such as rape, which saw the statistics rising from 65 cases in 2018 to 80 in 2019, defilement cases from 26 offences in 2018 to 23 in 2019.

As the media, she said they had a powerful role to play in addressing violence against women and children as they were often in a position to shift the public opinion.

She said it was their responsibility to ensure that victims of gender based violence were brought to book, hence the project aimed at strengthening journalistic coverage of gender based violence.

“We can no longer just focus on telling the story, human lives are at stake,” she said.

Officer commanding No 8 District Senior Superintendent Sarah Gabathusi said causes of gender based violence  were cohabitation, cultural norms that dictated that men were aggressive, controlling and dominant while women were docile, submissive and relied on men as providers.

Snr Supt Gabathusi said the norms could foster a culture of abuse such as early and forced marriage.

She indicated that in most African societies from birth, the boy child was held in high esteem than the girl child, and would be given names of power and superiority.

Alcohol and drug abuse, she said, had proven to be among the leading catalysts in the field of gender-based violence as well as infidelity in marriage. ENDS