Are we doing enough?

The Monitor Editor | Tuesday July 14, 2026 10:58

Women and children continue to suffer at the hands of men who, in their heads, seem to view them as objects they can abuse to satisfy their sick, disgusting tendencies. Hardly a day goes by without reports of a woman, an elderly woman, or a child being raped! Where are we going as Batswana? Rapists have instilled fear into people’s lives; there is no haven for anyone anymore as people live in fear not only walking the streets, but also inside their own homes. Recently, there was an article about an elderly woman who was raped by the same culprit a second time. The young man was sentenced to 10 years for the first rape incident, was released, and went back to rape the same elderly woman nine years after his release. There are several questions that come to mind: Is our rehabilitation system working? And also: are we not concerned with the safety of the elderly if a 105-year-old woman is left to sleep alone in a house?

Perhaps government should put more resources into assessing our rehabilitation system because the current situation shows that most of the courts are handling cases of repeat offenders; some even have multiple cases to answer before the courts on different crimes committed.

The country seems to have a growing number of serial rapists, some of whom seem to have ways of escaping the justice system, only to end up committing the same crime all over again.

It is obvious that most of the prisoners in our local prisons are impatiently serving their sentences with intentions of getting back into society to pick up where they left off! We cannot and should not continue to live in fear because of certain individuals who have made it their mission to terrorise law-abiding citizens, because they know they will only be given a slap on the wrist and serve a few years. Stakeholders should come together to come up with solid ways of ending GBV and ensuring that the country goes back to the safe haven that we used to know it to be. Prisons are meant to rehabilitate prisoners so that they can somehow get back into society and contribute meaningfully, but in our country the opposite seems to be the truth. The time is now that we need to reassess our rehabilitation system and come up with ways that will encourage behavioural change amongst ex-convicts.

Times have changed; the government and business community should perhaps look into establishing safe homes for the elderly members of our community. The elderly woman was raped twice because the culprit most likely knew that she slept alone and also that she would be defenceless.