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Walter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
RAPE is destabilising families in Zimbabwe as most perpetrators are related to their victims, the First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe has said. In a speech read on her behalf by Acting Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Cde Sithembiso Nyoni during a belated International Day of Families commemoration at Masvingo Polytechnic on Friday, the First Lady said most Gender Based Violence (GBV) victims are women and girls, depicting a sad scenario in society.

The International Day of Families falls on May 15 every year.

International commemorations were held under the theme: “Men in charge? Gender equality and children’s rights in contemporary families”.

The national theme was “The positive role of men in the family in Zimbabwe.”

The First Lady urged men and women to work together in building healthy families that would lead to a healthy nation. “About 60 percent of GBV survivors are women while 51, 3 percent of girls aged 19 years and below had their first sexual experience against their will,” said the First Lady.

She said in most cases perpetrators are men who are related to their victims.

“Rape is destabilising the family unit because in most cases the perpetrator and the victim are related. For example fathers are raping their daughters and grandfathers raping their granddaughters. I would want to think seriously about the relationship between a child born out of these wayward relationships and the parents,” she said.

She said the disintegration of the family unit is caused by migration, high divorces and gender based violence, among other causes.

She said migration of parents, particularly fathers to other countries has resulted in some children becoming “parents” to their siblings.

“High divorce rates are [common], leading to family breakdown and single parenthood. The majority of them will not have a male figure in the home and at times, these children end up with an identity crisis in the future. Violence in the home can cause family disunity through divorces,” she said.

She also said the family unit was also threatened by failure to access basic needs.

“According to Poverty Datum Line Analysis Report in Zimbabwe by Zimstats (2013), 62, 6 percent of Zimbabwean households are deemed poor. They don’t have enough incomes to meet basic needs such as food, clothes, education, health and shelter. They are also not able to access loans as they don’t have collateral which is demanded by most of the country’s financial institutions,” added Cde Mugabe.

In attendance at the family day were Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa, chiefs, Masvingo Provincial Administrator Felix Chikovo, Deputy Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Cde Abigail Damasane, among others.