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Hardly a day passes without reports on raped minors and most of them by close relatives such as fathers. What is disturbing is that even babies that are a few days or weeks old have been victims of these monsters. Many of these sexual assault cases go unreported because family members want to protect the family name at the expense of the victims.

Fathers and other close relatives who are supposed to provide love and security to minors have turned villains who sexually abuse the very same children they are supposed to protect.

We totally agree with the First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe that rape is destabilising families as perpetrators and victims are in most cases related. In the event of the father raping his own daughters and is reported to the police, it means the disintegration of that family.

A family is supposed to be an institution where children look up to their parents for love and protection but what is happening now is that children are no longer safe under the custody of their own fathers and other relatives.

Speaking at a belated International Day of Families commemoration in Masvingo last Friday Cde Mugabe urged both men and women to work together to build families. She said rape was destabilising the family unit because in most cases the perpetrators and victims were related.

“Fathers are raping their daughters and grandfathers are raping their granddaughters,” said Cde Mugabe.

This development is worrying and society should just find a solution. The courts have been meting out stiff penalties against these shame monsters but it seems this has not been deterrent enough given the fact that such cases are on the increase.

In the past some individuals have proposed extreme punishment such as castrating rapists and we are persuaded to conclude that they were right after all because an increasing number of men continue to rape minors including babies.

It is difficult to take measures to protect a child against a rapist if that rapist is related to her hence an increasing number of minors have been raped by their own fathers and grandfathers.

The challenge therefore is for society to come up with a solution to this disturbing trend which is ruining the lives of girls. Zimbabwe is being robbed of future leaders by these lustful monsters who seem not to appreciate the consequences of their barbaric acts. A rape victim is traumatised for life so what this means is that rapists are sentencing innocent girls to death through their acts.

Family members that protect rapists are equally guilty of the offence and should also be severely punished.

It is incumbent upon all community leaders be it village heads, councillors, chiefs, pastors and other such leaders to ensure that rapists are exposed and punished.

Society should practically demonstrate that it abhors rape and perpetrators should be made to feel that they are outcasts. It should be everybody’s duty to sniff out rapists and report them to the police.

Rapists are within our midst and if they are not reported to the police we are to blame.

We want to urge society to be always on the alert so that individuals can quickly identify rape victims and report the abuse to the police.