11 Dec 2022

The fight against gender based violence (GBV) can only be won through concerted efforts from everyone.

Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Ms Anna Mokgethi said this when officiating during Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) GBV awareness event in Francistown on Saturday.

The sponsored walk, which started at Central Police Station and proceeded to Thapama Hotel kick started the day’s events with the minister joining other activists.

Ms Mokgethi said gender based violence is a human rights violation against victims, especially women and children; something she explained needed joint efforts to be dealt away with.

It is to this end that Ms Mokgethi, who is also a Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington North appreciated this year’s theme; Unite! Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls. saying it called for a multi sectoral approach to put an end to GBV.

Ms Mokgethi said the advent of COVID-19 had not helped the situation either as incidents of gender based violence had been recorded across the globe including within the shores of Botswana.

“Here in our country we have had some of the horrendous acts of GBV where a two-year-old was molested by a 90-year-old man. 

It is time we all rise and stop turning a blind eye on these acts of violence,” she said, lauding BDP women in the Francistown region for organising the event.

She said, when giving statistics of GBV across the globe and in Botswana, that women and the the girl child were at the receiving end of those heinous acts of human rights violations.

Globally, she relayed that it was estimated that 85 per cent of women had experienced violence and that 70 per cent of those women had been violated by people close to them being either their relatives or sexual partners.

Furthermore, she said globally about 87 000 women were believed to have been killed while 50 000 had been murdered by their partners.

Ms Mokgethi stated that 37 per cent of Batswana women experienced violence in 2018 and that studies also indicated that a substantial number of the men folk had suffered abuse before they attained the age of 18 at the hands of parents, relatives or members of the community.

To arrest the situation, Ms Mokgethi said government had to come up with several interventions, including the multi-sectoral approach where it had forged synergies with stakeholders such as faith based organisation, Dikgosi, Non-Governmental Organizations, media and many others.

Such synergies, she said were critical and had proven to be worthwhile, especially in demystifying certain stereo-types that might otherwise perpetuate gender based violence.

Francistown Mayor Godisang Radisigo was disheartened by soaring numbers of incidents of gruesome human rights violation, including murder that happened even during a period set aside by the government to give the nation a time to reflect on GBV that had become a terror to the society.

”It is high time for men to take their patriarchal role and restore order in our society, especially to provide guidance and direction to the young men who are mostly perpetrators of ghastly incidents of violence,” he said.

Like other speakers, the mayor, who is also a councillor for Satellite South, extolled government for the many interventions put in place to fight GBV.

From the Christian point of view, Pastor Elizabeth Tomango said the church was also feeling the heat of GBV due to a number of reasons, including the violation of marriage sanctity by some Christian couples, which she cited culminated in disputes.

The situation, she said was exacerbated by the fact that some ministers of the Gospel were the ones perpetrating Gender Based Violence in the homes.

That being the case, Pastor Tomango told victims of violence to stop allowing themselves to be abused by staying in abusive relationships as that could only put their lives in danger.

For her part, Francistown Central councillor, Nametso Griesmier challenged men to voice out challenges they faced in relationships and stop bottling up their worries as that tended to explode in the end.

Her wish is for the church to rise in prayer to the almighty to intervene and rid the society of the grisly incidents of violence that have plagued the nation.

Tatitown Customary Court President, Ms Chamalebo Montshiwa acceded that certain aspects of Setswana culture encouraged GBV.

She called on women to bridle their tongue as that could provoke the men folk to violence.

She advised couples to take responsibility and solve their differences amicably and also seek God’s wisdom every time they encounter problems.

Giving a vote of thanks, Specially elected councillor from Sowa Town Ms Kgomotso Seduke challenged government to consider bank rolling gender based violence programmes substantially if it harbored winning the fight against the phenomenon.

Promulgation of stringent laws, she said, could also help deter some of the violations. Ends