GBV: The big elephant in the room

The Monitor Editor | Tuesday May 30, 2023 06:00

Sadly, the country seems not to have proper tools and the extent to which women and the girl-child are being abused is not adequately measured.

Almost every week there are reports of women being attacked by their significant others and while men are attacked as well, women seem to be more on the receiving end.

On May 24, 2023 news broke that a woman who was receiving support from the Botswana Gender-Based Violence Prevention Centre in Gaborone, was stabbed to death by her partner at one of their drop-in centres.

The incident allegedly happened during the couple’s counselling session, where the two were meant to be reconciled. The couple had reportedly had a misunderstanding. According to the Centre, there was no outward sign of violent intention prior to the incident. Unfortunately, this case is just a tip of the iceberg, because there are many others of women being violently robbed, raped and abused.

The big question that still begs the answered is, what are we doing about all these as the community, law enforcement and other relevant stakeholders? While it is understandable that the counselling session was meant to bring the two together so that they can reconcile their differences, what happened should be a wake up call for centres that provide such services.

Perhaps the centre as well as others should now make it one of the rules that everyone who enters their premises is searched to ensure that no one gets into their premises with weapons that can end another person’s life. The punishment for rapists in Botswana still remains a slap in the wrist, and some abusers actually walk free and roam the streets in search for the next victim.

Perpetrators proudly roam the streets because they are confident that should it happen that they are caught, they will be granted bail in the shortest time possible. The country needs to go back to the drawing board and fight crime from its roots.

The government should also take heed of this very ugly situation and come up with ways to protect citizens from such violence! The law sometimes seems to be more lenient on what is often referred to as intimate killings. Perhaps it is about time that those circumstances should be reviewed!