Bulawayo leads in women in abuse cases

As Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in celebrating the International Women's Day last week, local gender rights advocacy group — Musasa Project — released a damning report in which Bulawayo was fingered as leading in cases of violence and sexual assault against women.

So pervasive was gender-based violence (GBV) in Bulawayo and the greater Matabeleland region, that in many cases women and girls who had been raped were reluctant to report the perpetrators of such heinous crimes to law enforcement agencies.

According to Musasa, the late reporting of rape — especially in cases where women and girls had also been impregnated — often meant that there was little that authorities could do to terminate such pregnancies and to mitigate diseases such as HIV/Aids.

Simelinkosi Mazwi, an official with the advocacy group, revealed last week that Musasa had dealt with 2 817 cases of women abuse in Bulawayo last year.

"These women received psychosocial support and legal advice ... The total of cases that went to court is only 426.

"Of these cases, only 165 had protection order applications that were filed and completed successfully in court.

"At times women are not so keen to proceed further to court and seek psychosocial support or couple counselling sessions," Mazwi said.

Musasa had also recorded many GBV cases from places such as Lupane, Matobo and Nkayi — where it said relatives were among the perpetrators of such violence against women and girls.

"Many of the perpetrators are relatives which complicates matters ... When one delays reporting a case of rape, the result often becomes pregnancy or being infected with HIV," Mazwi said.

She said it was regrettable that cases of physical assault, sexual and mental harm, as well as thuggish eviction of women from their homes were increasingly becoming very common around the country.

Last year, the government — with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) — launched a GBV online information portal, to aid both service providers and survivors in the fight against crimes targeted at women.

The UNFPA said the portal was expected to provide GBV survivors, the public and their communities with life-saving information on the importance of timely access and referral pathways to multi-sectoral services, among other things,

"Women play a critical role in sustainable development. When they are educated and healthy, their families, communities and countries benefit.

"Yet, gender-based violence undermines opportunities for women and denies them the ability to fully utilise their basic human rights.

"In Zimbabwe, about one in three women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about one in four women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15," the UNFPA said in one of its reports.