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Covid-19 and the lockdown it necessitated are bad enough.

At their peaks, they halted the economy and devastated livelihoods. More than 7 800 people have been infected in the country since March, with 228 losing their lives.

Covid-19 and the lockdown brought so much emotional turmoil among the people as they tried to figure out how their tomorrow would be like. Many businesses that were forced to stop operating by the national lockdown that was implemented as the Government fought to prevent the spread of the disease, might not reopen. Thousands have lost jobs as a result while others are having to work for a fraction of the salaries they were paid before March.

However, some among us, especially women and girls are struggling with a different, nay, parallel pandemic. This is making an already bad situation worse for them.

Due to the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the socio-economic status of many in the country, a recently-released Stopping Abuse and Female Exploitation (SAFE) Zimbabwe Technical Assistance Facility report produced together with the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, shows violence against women and girls shot up by 38, 5 percent during the first two months of the lockdown that is April to May compared to the preceding two months before the national lockdown that is February to March.

Between March and May, as we reported yesterday, about 6 906 women reported abuse to five major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that deal with gender-based violence. According to the report 332 women were raped over the three months.

“There was a 38.5 percent overall increase in reports of violence to NGOs providing services to violence against women and girls over the two months during lockdown (April to May 2020) compared to the two months before lockdown started (February to March 2020). Physical violence increased by 43.8 percent, emotional violence increased by 80.3 percent, and economic violence increased by 42.4 percent,” reads the report.

The total number of abused women and girls could be higher as some victims don’t report their experiences to NGOs. Also, given that the organisations involved in the study in point are geared towards supporting women, there is a possibility that the number of abused people could be far higher if we add men who may have been subjected to abuse by their wives or partners but have not been captured in the relevant study.

It is intolerable that some men are getting so frustrated because of Covid-19 and its dire socio-economic impact that they end up unloading those frustrations on their innocent, defenceless wives and daughters.

The men concerned need to acknowledge that the pandemic is affecting everyone so beating up their wives will not get them out of the socio-economic challenges that the infection has caused. Rather, abusing their wives and daughters creates direr problems for them. They risk arrest and lengthy jail terms.

Instead, the men concerned are encouraged to, as they say, man up and confront the challenges that Covid-19 has wrought on them. If they have lost their jobs or are now earning a fraction of their pre-March salaries they must seek ways to earn incomes by alternative, legitimate means. Encouragingly, we are seeing many people selling vegetables off the boots of their vehicles and earning much more money than they did through their formal jobs before Covid-19. Also, we are seeing many people taking Covid-19 not as a problem per se, but an opportunity by making and selling face masks and manufacturing hand sanitiser and sanitiser dispensers. As a matter of fact, Covid-19 has created a number of businesspeople who are making thousands of litres of hand sanitiser and supplying schools, churches, supermarkets and other businesses.

Indeed, there is much money to be made and being made from Covid-19.

Therefore, instead of taking Covid-19 as a problem that got them sacked or that took down their businesses, men who are so frustrated that they have taken to emotionally, economically and physically abusing their wives should begin looking for opportunities that the pandemic has created so that they overcome the initial difficulties it posed. The pandemic will not be forever; there is life after it. Whining and abusing the vulnerable will not replace the job, income or business that the pandemic has stolen.

Real, strong men, when faced with financial difficulty, don’t beat up or abuse their wives. Instead, real, strong men love their wives; they work hard, secure alternative ways to provide for their families.