12 Aug 2026

The rise in defilement cases calls for society to acknowledge the societal ill and face it head-on though some people find it an uncomfortable subject to talk about.

Speaking at the launch of Mpepu’s Sireletsa Ngwana, Sireletsa Bokamoso campaign in Tutume on Friday, First Lady Ms Kaone Boko said defilement had far-reaching consequences for victims, including teenage pregnancy.

She said it was disheartening that majority of families opted to protect perpetrators instead of victims by not reporting cases to the police.

Ms Boko further said the victims were left destroyed emotionally, psychologically and left with pregnancies that resulted in them being discriminated against by even their family members.

In Tutume district, she said it has been revealed that from January to June this year alone, 135 cases of teenage pregnancies had been recorded, with most not having been reported to relevant authorities such as social workers and the police. 

In addition, she pointed some of the teenage pregnancies that resulted from defilement were not even registered at health facilities for victims to receive ante-natal care, adding that there were reports of victims being made to deliver their babies at home without proper medical care as parents feared that taking them to hospital would expose their family secrets in cases where perpetrators where family members of the victims. 

Ms Boko said it was time that society held the uncomfortable conversations around defilement and to bring to the fore the challenges faced by children at the hands of those supposed to be their protectors or guardians.

“We need to strengthen our collective response to these challenges faced by children,” she said

As an intervention, she said she had asked bahumagadi ba dikgosi or wives of dikgosi to set up a safe haven in the district where young girls could comfortably share their ordeal without being judged or victimised.

Meanwhile, an official from the office of the First Lady Ms Florence Ntsabang highlighted that during engagements that preceded the launch of the Sireletsa Ngwana, Sireletsa Bokamoso campaign, young people proposed that a one-stop centre dealing directly with issues pertaining to children be set up to allow for better handling of children’s issues.

She added that there was also an appeal for sexual offenders not to be given bail while awaiting trial because in many instances the same people tended to offend again.

Ms Charlbie Lentswe, children’s representative for the Tutume district proposed that laws be amended to have male students who impregnate their fellow female counterparts to also leave school so that not only the girl child was forced to abandon their education because of the pregnancy.  ENDS