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DECLARING GBV NATIONAL CRISIS CANNOT SOLVE PROBLEM – DPM

By SIFISO DLAMINI | 2023-01-03

With calls increasing for government to declare gender based violence a national crisis, the Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, says this would not bring an end to the scourge.

Masuku said government alone could not end gender based violence and called on civil society organisations, traditional authorities and society at large to come up with solutions to the national challenge.

In an attempt to curb gender based violence, politicians, the civil society and general public called on government to declare GBV a national crisis following an increase in the number of reported cases.

According to the Eswatini Priority Indicator Report (PIR) launched on December 7, 2022, 38 per cent of girls experienced sexual violence in childhood.

Almost 43 per cent of girls and women who reported any incident of sexual violence had two or more incidents before they reached the age of 18.

The report further detailed that one out of four girls and young women reported experiencing physical violence prior to age 18. Of these, 65 per cent described the perpetrator as being violent multiple times.

Sexual violence was associated with significantly increased probability of depression, thoughts of suicide, unintended pregnancy, pregnancy complications or miscarriages, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile between January and August 2019, there were 560 cases reported on gender-based violence.
Between January and August 2020, there were 629 cases recorded by the Royal Eswatini Police Service.

The civil society has emphasised on the need to identify the key drivers of gender based violence, such as mental health so they could be turned into solutions through programmes.
Masuku stated that declaring GBV as a national crisis alone was not the solution, pointing out that such initiatives had been undertaken on other issues with little to no improvement.

“For instance, HIV was declared as a pandemic a long time ago but it has taken years to actually see significant improvement,” he said.
He said other initiatives had been undertaken by government such as the enactment of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act with the hope that it would deter perpetrators but instead the volume and nature of the crimes had escalated.

The deputy premier said as government, they were aware of a number of the root causes for gender based violence, which include alcoholism, substance abuse, child headed households and teenage pregnancy, among other.

“These problems cannot be solved by government alone. Everyone has to step up and play their part if we are ever to eradicate this disease from our society,” said Masuku.
He insisted on the need to have clear expectations on what would be done once GBV was declared a national crisis.

Masuku challenged those calling for GBV to be declared a national crisis to come up with solutions.
“Let us all come together as a nation to find a solution to ending GBV and not look to government alone,” said Masuku.

He challenged the civil society, traditional authorities, families and the nation at large to come up with a proposal on how this could be addressed.
He said there was a need to have a clear expectation and proposals on what would be done once GBV was declared a national crisis.

Adding, Masuku said there was a need for all stakeholders to work together towards addressing the challenge at hand as it was already out of control.

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