25 Nov 2020

The Mayor of Francistown, Mr Godisang Radisigo says Gender Based Violence (GBV) remains one of the most dreadful human rights violations experienced by humankind.

Calling on people to start a war against GBV, Mr Radisigo said Francistown city had not been spared by the scourge as evidenced by the number of GBV cases reported to various service providers. He said statistics showed that from January to September 24, various service providers registered high numbers of GBV cases.

He said 127 cases of rape, 155 of defilement, 37 of threat to kill, 24 of murder and 216 of physical abuse were registered and processed at police, magistrate courts and various non-governmental organisations serving Francistown.

Mr Radisigo called on religious entities to join the fight by utilising their platforms to educate society about issues of gender based violence.

The mayor noted that as a strong family institution was one of the cornerstones of the Vision 2036 Pillar of Human and Social Development; it was fitting that MRS Botswana was formed in 2015 to create strong family foundations.

He said strong families could also be used to fight GBV as one of MRS Botswana’s objectives extends to creating a platform for healthy marriages and curbing the high divorce rate in the country.

He called on the City of Francistown to embrace and applaud their efforts because by doing so it would contribute to creating stable households and communities.

Meanwhile, he said, Francistown had three COVID-19 positive junior certificate candidates and one BGCSE candidate, adding that six candidates had to be quarantined during the exam time because they were COVID-19 suspects; two at PSLE, three at JCE and one at BGCSE.

However, the mayor said measures were put in place to ensure that positive and suspected candidates wrote and finished their exams smoothly, saying facilitation for the examinations included provision of Personal Protective Clothing to invigilators, suspects and confirmed cases.

On the issue of stray cattle, the mayor said the city was currently grappling with an upsurge of stray animals ranging from cattle, donkeys, horses and even goats.

He said that the council was thus implementing the Pound Act in the control and management of stray animals, which come from nearby villages, since no one was allowed to keep livestock in an urban area.

He said additional personnel had been engaged to help in animal prone areas, while the community had been engaged by way of meetings, which started in October  to create awareness.

Mr Radisigo revealed that there was an ongoing exercise of profiling illegal holding kraals within the city, with the view to destroying them, in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, as a way of discouraging people from keeping livestock in the city. ENDS