02 Dec 2020

 Social welfare officers have been urged to consider themselves the voice of the voiceless.

 Ghanzi East Sub-council senior assistant secretary Mr Thatayotlhe Balapi said by virtue of their positions, social welfare officers were custodians of social justice as well as welfare for the less privileged, vulnerable and helpless community members. 

“You are very few but numbers of those seeking help are many, so their fate is upon your shoulders. So you need to act promptly,” he told a social welfare stakeholders’ collaboration workshop in Ghanzi  on Monday.

Expressing concern about  skyrocketing incidents of gender-based violence (GBV), Mr Balapi implored social workers to do everything in their power to rescue the situation. 

He said GBV issues should dominate all engagements and pleaded with the media to play their part in ensuring that happened.

Another speaker, the sub-council’s senior social welfare officer, Ms Masego Kgomotso described the media as a powerful tool in influencing societal behavior.

She appealed to media practitioners to assist social welfare officers in driving their mandate.

Ms Kgomotso said the high number of defilement and rape cases involving children recorded during lockdown called for strengthened collaboration among all key stakeholders. 

She said lack of parental care and dysfunctional families exacerbated GBV and pledged her department’s services to help build strong families. 

Meanwhile, Detective Pule Ramontsho has said between January and October 2019, police registered 47 rape and 19 defilement cases while during the same period this year, 27 rape and 31 defilement cases were recorded. 

He said dependence by victims on perpetrators also aggravated GBV incidence. ends