01 Dec 2022

Department of Gender Affairs wants the National Relationship Study, which was first carried out in 2018, to be done every five years to establish progress.

A gender officer in Francistown, Mr Nelson Molapi said the department had recommended that the study, which was carried out by the then Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, reveal a gender based violence (GBV), child abuse, domestic and sexual violence prevalence in families across the country.

Mr Molapi told a capacity building workshop for Faith Based Organisations in Francistown to mark 16 days of activism against violence on women and girls on Tuesday that the study revealed that age was a significant factor in both experiencing and perpetrating of GBV by women and men, while another factor was disability among women, who were three times likely to experience GBV than men with disabilities.

The gender officer stated that abuse in childhood was also significant in both GBV experience and perpetration by women and men.

Mr Molapi said having a drunkard partner and more than one sexual partners increased the chances of experiencing GBV.

He also revealed that after the COVID-19 lockdown, women’s shelters, both in Francistown and Gaborone, were overwhelmed with GBV victims needing safe spaces.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Gunny Moses of Phase IV Customary Court stated that some traditional or cultural norms and values that discriminated against women had to be condemned, saying they were now outdated.

Giving a keynote address, Councillor Mmoloki Gaebotswe of Phillip Matante West lamented that nowadays, some of the perpetrators of GBV, especially on girls, were community leaders including church leaders and politicians, who were supposed to be in the forefront of the fight against GBV.

Councillor Gaebotswe said Faith Based Organisations had a big role to play in addressing GBV, thus should inculcate a mindset change in their churches.

For their part, participants underscored the need for Faith Based Organisations to join the fight against GBV, with some calling on government to tighten penalties for sexual offences because they dehumanised the victims.

One of the participants, Pastor Misiyose Holonga said the Penal Code should be amended so to allow for sentencing of rapists to life imprisonment. ENDS