GBV courts start in Molepolole with 200-case backlog

The newl y - i nt roduc ed Gender Based Violence (GBV) specialised courts started in Molepolole this week, with 200 backlog cases being presented before them.

The courts are positive that there will be a marked improvement. After all, out of the 440 domestic cases brought to court last year, nearly 70 percent of them received a ruling within a month. The intention is to ensure that turnaround time for GBV cases is as fast as two weeks or less.

Botswana is currently g r appl i ng with increased cases of GBV. The lockdown earlier this year, exposed the enormity of the social problem. Botswana Police have recorded about 2780 cases of rape, since January this year.

These numbers could be higher because not all victims report cases. Nearly 70 percent of women in Botswana have experienced some form of violation in their lifetime, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund.

The specialised courts housed in the 25 magistrate courts, are expected to prioritise GBV cases by removing them from the usual roll of cases. Through the new system, GBV cases will be filed as urgent applications.

The first phase of the GBV specialised courts includes six of them in Molepolole, Francistown, Palapye, Selebi- Phikwe and Maun, which are considered “hotspots” of GBV as they have the highest rates of cases before courts and police. An additional court will be in Mogoditshane later in the financial year. The long-term plan however, is to roll out more of these courts to the rest of the country. The specialised courts are government’s intervention to curb and address GBV incidences, and also deal with matters as fast as possible. It has been indicated that one of the reasons that some victims withdraw cases is because cases take too long before the courts. Kgomotso Kelaotswe, a counsellor at Botswana Gender Based Prevention and Support Centre (Kagisano Women’ Shelter) said one of the reasons for many victims, mostly women, withdrawing cases from police or going back to their abusers is the long time it takes to address cases of GBV at court.

“The longer turnaround time sometimes means that we are forced to accommodate them for a longer period of time. Some of them go back to the perpetrators who violated them because they have nowhere to go,” she said.