24 Nov 2022

Women are the backbone of public services. To underscore this, women employees at the Office of the District Commissioner in Francistown Tuesday refrained from all else, dressed in white and came together in a seminar to celebrate women excellence in the public service. They discussed various topics that affect their lives amongst them the root cause of Gender Based Violence (GBV). 

Speaking at the event, themed “build a woman, build the nation”, Francistown District Commissioner, Ms Chabongwa Matseka said women were the face of the public service because of their large number in government institutions. Government had entrusted them with delivering excellence and quality hence the need to recognise their input. 

The District Commissioner implored women in public service to work as a team in order to enjoy their work. She also encouraged them to respect the feedback they received from their workmates.

 Speaking at the same event Sergeant Tsietso Senong of Gender and Child Protection Unit at Central Police Station, said although GBV was a result of many factors, which sometimes interplayed, unrestrained emotions were at the top of the stack. “People are overpowered by their emotions and end up killing their partners,” she said. 

GBV, and in particular violence against women, was one of the most pronounced expressions of unequal power relations between women and men, she said. Sgt Tsietso said most GBV cases were aggravated by reluctance of victims to report perpetrators to authorities. 

This was so, because society generally perceived victims of gender-based violence as shameful and weak, with many women still being considered guilty of attracting violence against themselves through their behaviour. 

Consequently many women felt guilty of reporting perpetrators. 

“But I encourage victims not to blame themselves for being abused, as it not their fault,” she said. Sgt Senong said other factors that could lead to GBV were age difference as well as being in disparate social classes. 

An example, she said, was that of a woman who was in a relationship with an unemployed man or who had a low-paying job. 

The woman was likely to be a victim of abuse. “Such men [generally] demand much of these women and misunderstandings erupt when their demands are not met. Our office, is inundated with cases of this nature” she said. 

She therefore, appealed to women to aim high when it came to love relationships in order to live a peaceful life. Sgt Senong also talked at length about defilement cases which were also on the rise countrywide. 

She identified the causes as carelessness of parents and lack of cordial relationship between parents and children, inability to exercise self-control, and promiscuous lifestyles by parents. 

She said perpetrators of defilement took advantage of the innocence and poor guardianship of the minors, repeatedly abusing them. ENDS