Stop gender-based violence

Sir,

Have you ever thought about that wonderful and beautiful sound that comes out when male voices sing together?

Well I have been thinking how wonderful it would be if men can join the fight against gender-based violence in the country and sing in one voice with women and girls and shout enough to the killings, rape and other forms of inhuman treatment on our mothers, sisters and daughters.

Gender-based violence has taken another level in the country and it appears we are too silent as men and the silence is too loud to be ignored. No matter how successful women and girls’ programmes can be, they can only address part of the problem.

Sir,

Provoked

Most boys think it is okay for a man to beat a woman when he has been provoked. Violence is learned, and therefore, it can be unlearned.

The time to stand up as emaSwati men is now; sing in harmony with those who are already fighting the scourge. Let us not make it a women’s issue but we should make it

Despite the lip-service and rhetoric we are accustomed to, there appears to be no political will to addressing corruption in the country. And as long as our attitudes are like that, we are not likely to see any meaningful change in our detection and controlling the level of corruption in the kingdom.

Influence

We all know that government has influence over the work of its departments, and as such, the notion our problem as we have lost our mothers, sisters, friends, daughters and colleagues too. We should not make this issue the police, God’s or government’s problem.

Decide

This has been giving me sleepless nights because we know that every human’s days are in God’s hands, but today there are people who decide to that government’s hands are tied in some matters must be rejected with the impunity it deserves.

Probe

Government is not being asked to directly probe those matters bordering on corruption, but it can facilitate their probing by the relevant anti-corruption agencies.

In the absence of consistency in the application of rules to deal with corruption, this country cannot expect to put up a good fight against this scourge. From a philosophical, theological and moral perspective, cut short the lives and potential of many women and girls, thus bringing into disrepute the good name of many men who don’t believe and do not use violence against women.

We cannot sit and watch while the safety of our own is being compromised in our name as men.

S Makama

corruption is defined as the spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. We actually do not need legislation or fancy codes of conducts that will never be put in place to tell us that a certain conduct is wrong.

Even before the PAC came on board, we knew that bribery, extortion etc were wrong. Corruption is rampant in the country; and it makes one shudder when no action is taken.

The country is besieged with corruption, and is now experiencing what is termed systemic or endemic corruption, where certain corrupt practices have formed part of our every day lives. This scourge requires decisive action and changed attitudes in dealing with it.

Transparency International publishes an annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), it would be interesting for the country’s politicians to refer to this and see how we fare.

I dismiss the notion and the unrealistic objective to have corruption eradicated because it will never be eradicated.

Countries that mean business in dealing with it intensify their fights against it through improved detection, investigation and getting perpetrators or corruptors convicted. But paramount to this fight, are attitudes of people that must change from being abdicators to actors.

Babe Dlamini