Govy Please Protect Our Children!

Monitor Editor | Monday August 31, 2020 13:49

Sadly, the numbers don’t seem to be dwindling and if anything they keep going up. Rape is a horrendous crime and it deserves to be treated as such, even more heinous whence committed on a defenceless child.

More horrifying is the sentence that rapists get that is little more than a slap on the wrist compared to the harm and destruction they cause to the victims.

Of late, reports on defilement of minors seem to be growing, some of which end up falling pregnant as a result. Disgustingly, some of the accused are people in positions of power who are expected to lead by example. If our leaders are busy defiling children who is going to ensure that laws are put in place to protect children against these devils?

What is even sadder is that we have been receiving reports of men defiling their biological children. Not only is the barbaric act in itself shameful, it is also the cruelest thing that a parent could ever do to his or her own child. We all know that parents are the legal guardians of their minor children, until such at time when they are considered old enough to make decisions on their own. Just imagine the same father who is supposed to protect their daughter from all dangers and ensure that she is properly taken care of is the monster terrorising the child. Another case that stretches the imagination already happened where an uncle sexually assaulted his seven-year-old nephew.

I know it sounds like something taken out of a horror film, except that for these young souls this is their tragic reality in this country.

Tsabong Police Station commander, superintendent, David Thapi recently raised an alarm at the growing rate of sexual offences involving under age girls. He revealed that in 2019 the police station recorded 10 defilement cases, in which three girls fell pregnant. Thapi further revealed that this year from January to date, they have already reported 21 cases out of which 17 girls were pregnant as a result.

We seem to be dragging our feet, which has somehow made the perpetrators believe or rather think that what they are doing is normal.

Worst of all, some of the parents of the victims have been accused of protecting the perpetrators and frustrating police’s efforts to arrest these paedophiles.

We have long been waiting for the sex offender registry that we were promised a long time ago. Let’s wake up! The time to act is now! Our future leaders need protection now and not later. Let’s not dim or douse the promise of light that brightens their path with complete lack of action to see to full justice being served. Together we can protect our children!