06 Jul 2020

COVID-19 is said to have demonstrated that Botswana is not ready to fight gender based violence (GBV).

The executive director of Chibuya’s house women’s shelter in Maun, Ms Peggy Ramaphane told a Boteti women empowerment network held in Letlhakane recently that due to an increase in GBV cases during COVID-19, the Gaborone women’s centre opened six shelters while Maun opened an additional one.

She noted that domestic violence took place in homesteads with intimate partners’ violence being the most prominent.

Researchers, she said, had revealed that domestic violence perpetrators were men. “Women bear the brunt of gender based violence,” she said.

Ms Ramaphane stated that children also experienced different forms of violence such as incest in their homes.

She advised women to report cases of threat to kill. 

For his part, Kgosi Barontshi Kegapetswe proposed that the law should be amendment to allow customary courts to try defilement cases, expressing concern that civil courts cases took long to prosecute.

Ms Daisy Bathusi said it was crucial to establish why gender based violence cases were high in Boteti. She also called for behaviour change.

Officer Commanding District No 8, Senior Superintendent Sarah Gabathusi decried that GBV was not given the appropriate attention. She  suggested that GBV perpetrators should be rehabilitated and not only taken to prison. Ends