23 Sep 2013

A recent study conducted in Botswana has shown that only 1.2 percent of victims of gender based violence report to the police.

Speaking at a one day domestic violence workshop hosted by Tatitown Police in Mathangwane recently, a retired nurse, Ms Fanny Matimba explained the research had shown that out of every nine women who were raped, only one reported to the police while one in seven sought medical attention. Ms Matimba noted failure to report perpetrators undermined efforts to fight gender based violence as victims.

She said that patriarchal attitudes were a significant underlying factor driving the incidence of GBV in Botswana although women and men affirmed gender equality in the public domain. She added however the same attitude did not play out in their private lives, particularly in their intimate relationships.

The community, she said, needed to broaden its partnership with other stakeholders to fight abuse within their areas and at the same time come up with means of dealing with conservative community beliefs, values and gender attitudes. She said community beliefs and attitudes tended to reinforce GBV in Botswana.

“With so much commitment on the part of government it only calls for our full involvement and participation as community members to realise the goals,” she said. Furthermore, she said through GBV workshops, organisations could the community on their role to curb domestic violence, adding that sensitisation as well as action had to be on-going until a more acceptable picture was painted among the people in the whole country.

Ms Matimba therefore suggested that although the domestic violence law was a step forward, high statistics of GBV in communities called for a collaborative response from the government, communities and civil society organisation as well as the private sector to facilitate mobilisation.

This, she mentioned, would educate the public about GBV for the purposes of showing its effects on society and the need to report cases. She further mentioned that the Domestic Violence Act was passed in 2008 with the aim of providing immediate relief to survivors of domestic violence and to stop or reduce further violence.

The implementation of this Act, she said, had met challenges as some implementers like magistrates, prosecutors and the police were not acquainted with how to address such cases of domestic violence while some survivors asked to take up issues with their relatives.

She advised relevant officers should be equipped with the necessary skills to identify and assist victims instead of asking them to go back to the same situations of abuse. Meanwhile, Officer Commanding of No.1 district, Senior Superintendent, Israel Tuelo said the objective of the workshop was to meet with communities and sensitise them on issues of GBV. It further sought to sharing statistics and come up with solutions which could help them as stakeholders in the fight against domestic violence.

The workshop was held under the theme “broadening community participation in community policing for a safe, secure nation by 2016.” ENDS