05 Sep 2023

There is need to intensify child protection and for the administration of justice to prioritise child abuse cases.

United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF)’s country representative, Dr Joan Matji, who visited the Letlhakane Child Friendly Centre on Monday, emphasised the importance of timely and efficient justice. 

She cited instances where a victim no longer had interest in pursuing a case because a long time passed before the matter reached the courts.  

“A hurt child becomes a hurt adult,” she said.

Dr Matji stated that UNICEF established a good relationship with the Botswana Police Service in 2018 during the countrywide campaign tagged ‘Eseng mo Ngwaneng,’ which was spearheaded by First Lady Neo Masisi.

She suggested that ‘Eseng mo Ngwaneng’ should become a social movement that is embraced by the whole society. 

She said the campaign should be visible in different public areas such as dikgotla, schools and health centres.

Dr Matji expressed gratitude to the government of Japan and British High Commission for funding the child protection work that UNICEF and Botswana Police Service were currently involved in. 

She explained that the work started with developing standard operating procedures on interviewing and reporting, adding that the police were trained with support of the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom.

“It is through that training that even here we can talk about well-trained police officers,” she said.

She pointed out that gender-based violence (GBV) should not be the responsibility of the police alone, saying it had to cut across different sectors.

She noted that it had been a year since a Child Friendly Centre (CFC) was set up in Letlhakane and already some challenges, such as lack of transport, had been observed, adding that they would be attended to.

Dr Matji indicated that since HIV was still prevalent in Botswana, it was crucial to ensure that a child who had been sexually assaulted got medication within 72 hours. 

She pointed out that a child was not supposed to queue up with everyone to receive medical treatment.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Gontlafetse Segolodi stated that since the establishment of Child Friendly Centres (CFC)enforcement of the Children’s Act had been enhanced.  

Mr Segolodi observed that most of defilement cases were not reported by parents, but were referrals from health facilities.

He said currently, there were seven CFCs around the country, and the eighth would soon be opened in Maun.

Letlhakane station commander Superintendent Michael Maphephu said a CFC was meant to provide a child-friendly space for children in contact with the law. 

Supt Maphephu said it was also intended to make policing easily accessible to children, receive reports involving children and investigate them.

He disclosed that since it was opened, the CFC had received 156 reports, and of these, 106 were mostly issues of delinquent children, which were then referred to various stakeholders for intervention, while 50 were cases that necessitated police action.  

Supt Maphephu stated that they had 19 rape cases, 17 of defilement, three of cruel treatment, one of neglect and two of missing persons. ENDS