14 Dec 2020

United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, Reverend Cosmos Ngoreng has urged all to ensure that they report cases of gender based violence (GBV) as and when they happen. 

Rev. Ngoreng said this at a service held in commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV at Jwaneng main kgotla recently.

He said people should develop a habit of reporting GBV with the aim to ending it and not mentioning cases using pretext of supposedly ‘exposing perpetrators’. 

He said key to ending GBV was making sure that perpetrators were rehabilitated and women and children security prioritised.

Rev. Ngoreng pointed out that victims of domestic and family violence were normally children and women with perpetrators being men, adding that only a small proportion of the acts of violence that affect the lives of women were reported.

He said there was need to pray for healing, forgiveness and restoration to those who have been affected by GBV and their families. 

 “If we do not report such cases GBV will never stop. 

The only way we can show that we care about women and children is through unearthing such cases and making sure that the aggressors face the law,” he said.  

He said victims needed to be protected as they were mostly victimised for reporting cases of abuse. 

He said most cases were never resolved as victims were often persuaded to drop charges in defence of family stability. 

Rev Ngoreng noted that there was need to create awareness and social consciousness about the problems of abuse affecting women and children. 

He said it was mostly unlikely for the family to testify if the perpetrator was their father, whom they depended on  economically and from whom they feared further punishment.

Jwaneng deputy district commissioner, Mr Legang Kgomoetsile commended the church for taking heed of government’s call for churches to intervene in combating GBV. 

He acknowledged the church’s input in being the change agents in the community to combating and eradicating GBV.

Mr Kgomoetsile urged men, especially at churche, to be vocal and speak out against acts of GBV, adding that more work needed to be done to empower men to speak out on any form of abuse.

He said although a lot of activism were geared towards women, men too were being abused and violated, but never spoke out; bottle up the emotions and later retaliated by inflicting harm to their partners. ends