Responding to escalating rape cases: what could be done
Pini Bothoko | Monday September 23, 2024 11:53
Demonstrated by police statistics it is evident that women and girls in Botswana live in the deepest fear of rapists causing harm to them as they please. Women and girls are woken up from their deep sleep in an attack and raped. Some are attacked and raped while walking alone either day or night whilst some are even raped by their close family members and friends.
Every week Mmegi carries stories of women and girls being raped some sexually assaulted by older men forcing the police to run helter-skelter in an effort to restore peace and tranquillity, unfortunately, to no avail as these cases continue to spiral out of control.
The world population review (2023) cites Botswana as having the highest incidence of rape in the world, at 92.93 per 100 000 people. This past Tuesday our sister publication, The Monitor carried out six stories in which women and girls were sexually assaulted in Central District in two days.
In one of these disturbing cases an 18-year-old girl was last Saturday raised from sleep in an attack during the day by an intruder and raped whilst home alone in Mabuo village. That same week a 15-year-old girl was also attacked and raped whilst walking home alone from a bar in Sefhare.
In another incident, a 21-year-old woman of Mowana ward, Mahalapye was also attacked by an intruder who chopped her bedroom door down with an axe to gain entry and raped her late at night. Meanwhile that same Saturday, another woman in her 20s woke up experiencing signs of sexual assault but bore no memory of either the sexual assault or getting home from the club with the police suspecting that she might have been drugged and raped.
No. 2 district officer commanding, senior Superintendent Paul Oketsang said despite their efforts as the police to sensetise the public about rape, rapists continue to cause havoc, especially in his policing area. He revealed that this year alone they have already recorded 88 cases of rape.
“Rape has been one of the offences keeping the police on their toes in Central District for years because back in 2022 we recorded 124 rape cases but these numbers slightly dropped to 99 cases in 2023.
“We do not know how we can address men anymore as they are the most perpetrators of rape as they continue to attack women in their sleep, whilst walking and rape them.
“Some women are even raped by their close relatives like fathers, step-fathers, uncles and cousins. The government increased rape penalties but it seems like that does not bother them at all,” Oketsang said.
He further stated that rape cases used to be more prevalent in Mmashoro and Serowe because in 2022 Mmashoro, police post alone had recorded 13 rape cases. Oketsang said it is sad that some survivors face extremely difficult, painful emotions and experiences that they struggle to cope with for a very long time.
“Awareness and penalties have been there and despite penalties having been increased people continue to inflict pain on others and the question is what could be done to change perpetrators’ attitudes? Through public education, we continue to try to transform men’s behaviour but our efforts seem to be falling on deaf ears,” noted Oketsang.
Recently when responding to a question that was asked by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye West, David Tshere before Parliament, the Minister of Defence and Security, Kagiso Mmusi said 445 rape cases have been recorded in the past five years in Mahalapye policing area. Subsequently, other villages like Letlhakane have been grappling with this scourge for years
Meanwhile, addressing this matter, a psychologist, Tsholo Zion, said when someone is not fulfilled at an individual level when they harbour a lot of pain, acrimony and have a broken soul, they are bound to hurt others in ways unimaginable.
She said that brokenness presents itself in many ways such as selfishness, need to dominate, need to control, anxiety, depression, always invalidating others, unhealthy competition, lust, bitterness, hate, pride, despising others, anger, jealousy to mention but a few.
Zion further stated that when someone rapes the other, that person (the rapist) is thinking about himself, gratifying himself at the expense of another person’s physical and mental health and their future. She explained that doing so is an indication of selfishness, hate, despise and lust.
“Being a rapist shows how weak a person is on the inside and how much they are unable to tame and control themselves and their sexual urges and lust. It is also an indication that, in other words, the person is failing himself, he can’t manage himself. He’s a failure on a personal level. It also shows how much they despise the other person and see them as an object they can use for their selfish gratification. This is the highest form of selfishness-brokeness at its highest. And the gratification is short-lived, neither does it solve anything nor bring some form of therapy. Rather it’s just adding on top of the brokenness and agrimony that the person already has,” Zion said.
Asked what could be done to curb this scourge as rape cases continue to spiral out of control despite measures in place, Zion said people should normalize going for therapy just as they have normalised going to seek medical help.
Moreover, she said people should dedicate themselves to personal development which focuses on character development and the therapy of their soul. Zion said they should pursue wholeness of the soul which will as a result bring them to a state of contentment, fulfilment, satisfaction respect for self and the other.
“People should prioritise their inner state of being just as they do to their outside look. People need to be proactive about their inner person as they are about the health of their bodies. They should know that the best begins from within, therefore, should desire wholeness which is the healthiest and highest version of a person,” Zion said.