01 Dec 2013

Justice Zibani Makhwade of Francistown High Court has said sexual offences are some of the worst forms of violence in societies which require collective efforts to find the solution to the issue.

Speaking at the launch of the Anti-Rape Campaign by Voice of Love organisation in Francistown on November 29, Justice Makhwade said traditionally sexual offences were commonly known to be committed by men against women but in recent times it has even gone beyond with reports of sexual offences committed by men on young boys. 

With these kind of scenarios, he suggested that those intending to tackle the issue should realise that it was more than a gender issue but an issue of morality and safety, and as such more significantly a human right issue.

He therefore noted that it was important for the society to first understand that sexual offences were more than physical acts since they affected the dignity and human worth of a person. And as such, any intervention should be geared first at the prevention of the occurrence of the event with the main objective being to deal with the aftermath and to prevent the recurrence.

In addition, he highlighted that sexual offences usually occurred outside the public eye although there were cases where perpetrators were ruthless and had no fear or respect of anyone and there were situations where the perpetrator would have the audacity to pull the victim from the public and threaten violence on anyone who dares to intervene.

 Because the majority of the offences occurred outside the public eye and the apparent shame it brought upon the victim, he said there was a tendency for the offences to go unreported while the victims will try to go on with their lives without proper assistance.

“It is important to reach out to as many of the victims of the offences as possible as way of helping them not pretend to be fine whereas they are not,” he emphasised.

He however, appealed to the organisation that since it intends to tackle the issue from various angles, the starting point should be at the family level as a basic unit of society because it is also the main place where the battle against sexual offences should commence particularly in the sense that that is where a lot of the unreported offences occurs with victims asked not to report cases if it involves a family member.

“The community at large needs to be sensitised and educated in order to fully play its role in this campaign and it is critical to effectively communicate with all stakeholders with the medium and language and location appropriate to them,” he said.

Meanwhile the founder of “We Care” steering committee for the Voice of Love, Mr Brian Cantwell explained that their long term goal is to have their own dedicated small qualified professional staff who will collate statistics, write pamphlets and train volunteer staff in coaching as well as parenting and other counselling skills necessary to carry out their work.

And they aim to work whenever possible with the perpetrators in counselling, training on how to manage and control their anger and seek a positive mode of expression particularly one that does not cause offence. Ends