HARARE Cases of gender based violence (GBV) have reached an all-time high with women increasingly likely to be the victims of violence, murder and rape. More than 2,300 cases of GBV have been reported so far this year almost double last years figures. Barbara Ngwenya, Chief Inspector in the ZRP for Harare, said five women have died from domestic abuse already this year. She told the meeting that there have been 2,379 cases of GBV reported so far this year, up from 1,053 in 2010.
Addressing more than 50 women, most of whom were from NGOs, she said: “In February alone there were 285 cases reported, up from 266 in January. A lack of funding and high staff turnover meant police failed to deal with GBV cases quickly. Ngwenya said prison sentences were too lenient on abusers in Zimbabwe.
“We do not get any funding and we desperately need it,” she said. “The Domestic Violence Act is good, but it is difficult to implement since most victims do not understand it.” She said there are no safe houses to keep abused women who sometimes go back to the very husbands who abused them. Ngwenya said the US$5 fee charged for a Protection Order Application form is “way too high and most poor women cannot afford it”.
“It is very easy to spend US$5, but it is also very hard to find it in Zimbabwe today,” she said. The Act was passed by Parliament in 2007. “We, as women, are very proud of it,” said an official from The Musasa Project. “But is it working in our favour. Sorry ladies, but I do not think it is. It is definitely not working for us, women.”
The GBV discussion was organised by the Musasa Project begun by the late Elizabeth Chanakira. The project protects women who have been abused by their husbands and who do not have any accommodation. It provides them with temporary shelter until they can get back into mainstream society. There were only four men among the participants.
Post published in: Politics