05 Oct 2020

Women as frontline  care givers should protect children and desist from withdrawing child abuse cases to allow the law to take its course.

  This was said by First Lady Neo Masisi at a gender-based violence (GBV) women’s pitso in Kasane Saturday.

 Noting that police were concerned about the rate at which cases of abuse were being withdrawn, Ms Masisi urged women to report cases of abuse and disseminate messages that could help curb GBV.

 “As women you are the only people with a key to lock GBV outside your lives,” she said.

The First Lady stated that the state of affairs in Botswana had resulted in United Nations Crime 2020 placing the country at second position in terms of rape cases.

In addition, she said almost 70 per cent of girls below the age of 15 years were once abused.

Ms Masisi said poverty and unemployment had been cited as contributory factors to GBV.

She said government was committed to ending GBV as evidenced by the existence of women empowerment programmes.

Meanwhile, the first lady has implored parents to be good role models for their children.

Parents, she said, should always be mindful of what they did in the presence of children.

“The children are like CCTV cameras and record what they see” and on growing up,  they would do exactly what they saw their parents doing, she said.

Ms Masisi encouraged parents to teach children good manners, to care, protect and love each other at an early age to avert their being abusive in future.

 For her part, Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Ms Anna Mokgethi said the Department of Gender Affairs had a strategy in for curbing GBV while promoting dialogue on the issue in the public domain.

She said last year, dikgosi in Chobe were trained on GBV as the district was identified as one with the highest number of cases in the country.

Noting that poverty was one of the factors leading to GBV, Ms Mokgethi therefore urged women to teach the girl child to be financially independent.

The minister advised women not to relegate the raising of children to teachers and domestic workers.

Quoting a Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development study, she said some children were abused through corporal punishment.

Positive parenting did not mean corporal punishment, she added.

She said instead of resorting to beating children, parents should create an opportunity to sit down and provide guidance.

Chobe District Council social and community development officer, Ms Maitumelo Ntwayagae blamed overcrowding for the high GBV numbers in the district saying children shared rooms with their parents and were therefore exposed to sexual activities

Ms Ntwayagae said cross border marriages also contributed to GBV.

Another speaker, Kgosi Rebecca Banika of Pandamatenga said in some cases, mothers were forced to withdraw cases becuase the perpetrator was the breadwinner.

Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCAIP) chief executive officer, Ms Lorato Mphusu said since most families in the country were female headed, women were rightly placed to play a positive role in raising loving children.

ENDS