Zimpapers Logo

Vaidah Mashangwa
THE Sunday News of July 29 had a chilling story of a boy aged 17 years who slit the tiny private parts of a four-year-old girl before raping her after realising that his manhood was too big for the child’s privates. Such brutality must be condemned at all cost as it has caused untold suffering to our women and girls. Surely where has the morality of our future parents and leaders gone to?
If men and boys who are the 99 percent perpetrators of gender based violence continue to rape innocent women and girls one wonders whether sentences against gender based violence perpetrators are deterrent enough. Women interviewed during the National Campaign Against Rape and Sexual Abuse of Women highlighted the need to impose stiffer penalties on perpetrators of gender based violence among them castration and a jail term of 40 years and above. Women feel that it is the only route to ensure that men stop raping and sexually abusing women and girls.

Basing this argument on the ever increasing incidences of gender based violence, most people especially women would agree with me that the sentencing patterns ought to be revamped and allow the introduction of stiffer penalties. For the punishment to be effective, it must be prompt, that is, it must follow aggressive actions as quickly as possible, secondly, it must be 100 percent certain that perpetrators are punished. Thirdly, it must be of sufficient magnitude to deter perpetrators from repeat actions and lastly it must be justified.

Some few months back, some people may recall the story of a five-year-old that was raped by the uncle and ruptured the uterus and facts are that she won’t be able to give birth when she grows up. In the case of the four-year-old whose private parts were ripped who knows the extent of the damage?

After the plea by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Cde Mugabe to stop child sexual abuse at the opening of the 22nd Session of the Children’s Parliament and commemorations to mark the Day of the African Child, Zimbabwean men and boys should be man enough and stop such bad behaviour. Recently, the First Lady too echoed the same sentiments. This is an indication that things have gone out of hand and a solution has to be sought urgently. This calls for behaviour change among men and boys.

Imagine how much revenue is been spent by our leaders in trying to curb gender based violence, such resources could be channelled to other developmental projects or issues. This leaves one wondering what has gone wrong with our men’s sexual desires. One article in Sunday News read, “Man Impregnates, Marries Stepdaughter (15 years)” and as if this was not enough, the man claimed that he intended to give the girl a second child once he is released from prison.

Children, most adults would agree with me, that they are to be cherished, protected and loved yet cases of child abuse occur every minute. Most cases of child abuse involve physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect and psychological abuse. Whoever harms a child is a kind of monster, seriously deranged person who has no respect of mankind. Is it that the men and boys can no longer sustain their sexual ego?

One must remember that when men and boys engage in such acts they are usually quite normal psychologically and in other respects. So they should indeed pay heavily for their weird actions.

There are also extreme cases whereby parents murder their own children and this is known as familicide. A good example is the Masvingo woman who poisoned herself and three children. Though some women are into this habit, it was found that between 93 percent and 96 percent of these crimes world-wide were committed by males. Usually the man kills the wife and then the children.

My worry is still failure to grasp why men and boys perform such ghastly actions. At times the killer expresses great anger against the wife especially with respect to real or suspected sexual infidelities or the intention of the wife to leave the marriage. Most murderers will simply say if I cannot have her then no one else should have her. Whatever the reasons are, familicide is a frightening instance in the context of intimate relationship.

Some people have always argued that at times it is the way women and girls dress, walk and talk that sexually arouse men. Research has come to the conclusion that rape is primarily an act of violence not of sexual arousal. How on earth can a 17-year-old be sexually aroused by a four-year-old girl or a 23-year-old man aroused by a 78-year-old grandmother? Other authors describe such behaviour as hostile aggression in which the prime objective is inflicting some kind of harm on the victim.

Violence creates an additional burden for the health sector when trauma care consumes a significant portion of health resources. This not only includes treating physical injuries and attending to disabilities caused by violence, but also the care of psychological trauma of victimisation or of witnessing violence among adults. At times children witness the murder of their mother and at times grandchildren watch helplessly as their grandmother is being raped. This ranges from emotional stress to post-traumatic stress disorder. In this instance women and girls as victims of gender based violence need a lot of psychological support. The same burden is felt by the Victim Friendly Unit, the courts, organisations that provide counselling and safe shelters.

When gender based violence occurs in the neighbourhood especially in a rural setting, it reduces the capacity of households to function as a unit. Neighbours rely on informal support networks to share childcare, food and water as their daily coping strategies, this is disturbed once neighbours become perpetrators of gender based violence.

It is unfortunate that while the Domestic Violence Act is there to protect victims of domestic violence this social ill has continued to soar and there is need to uphold our norms, values and beliefs as a Zimbabwean people and stop this epidemic.

Vaidah Mashangwa is Provincial Development Officer, Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Bulawayo. She can be contacted on 0772111592 email vmashangwa@ gmail.com