19 Mar 2020

Sunshine Africais calling for a radical approach towards building strong partnerships that could help eliminate gender based violence (GBV).

Speaking during a workshop in Letlhakeng on Friday, the chairperson of Sunshine Africa,  a Non-Governmental Organization established in 2012, Mr Anderson Mathibe described gender based violence as a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality that continued to be one of the most notable human rights violations across societies.

“Both women and men experience gender based violence, but the majority of victims are women and girls,” he said.

It was to this end, Mr Mathibe said, that Sunshine Africa had decided to join hands with the government to come up with strategies to fight gender based violence, which continued to soar among communities across the length and breadth of Botswana.

Station commander for Letlhakeng Police Station, Superintendent Mogomotsi Kesupile said as the police, they were troubled by the negative developments occasioned by gender based violence.

“We continue to receive distressing reports of incidents of GBV,” he said, adding that a growing tendency by parents and guardians to withdraw gender based violence cases was also not helping the situation.

He said those who withdrew cases usually came back when the situation had worsened while some even lose their lives to murder. Supt Kesupile said the situation was so grave in his policing area that 22 cases of rape were recorded in 2019 compared to 13 in 2018.

According to Superintendent Kesupile, Letlhakeng police recorded 69 assault cases in 2019 against 52 in 2018.

Also, Letlhakeng police recorded 17 cases of unlawful wounding in 2019 and 30 similar cases in 2018.

When sharing the objectives of the workshop, held under the theme; Borre Tsayang Taolo; Mmogo re ka Kgona,” Mr Davis Mathyts said his organisation’s primary focus was to empower community members through information sharing on the existence and the extent of gender based violence. Ends