Women Warned As Men's Insecurities Turn Deadly
Pini Bothoko | Monday September 16, 2019 11:25
The police chief, superintendent Moses Kwarare spoke in response to an upsurge in number of such murder cases.
As a result of such increased murders, attempted murders, suicide and attempted suicide, they will this week embark on a community outreach exercise to address the crisis at villages in his policing area.
Kwarare has noted that conflict that usually leads to the murder of, or some other violent crime against, an intimate partner continues to spiral out of control. With women commonly being victims to such violent crimes, they are being urged to be cautious of their partners’ insecurities.
Murder cases involving intimate partners, especially boyfriends, girlfriends and ex-lovers, worry the police. The concern follows the recent killings motivated by jealousy amongst intimate partners, which are often labelled as passion killings.
A week ago a man allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death with a knife in front of her 13-year-old son at Kumakwane and later attempted suicide in Gabane.
Three days after that incident, a 39-year-old man of Botlhapapelo ward, still in Kumakwane, was also arrested for allegedly cutting off his girlfriend’s ears following a row. It was reported that the suspect, Joseph Beset, lured his victim to the bush in the outskirts of Kumakwane under the pretext that he was going to slaughter a goat whereupon the scuffle ensued.
Over the years dozens of women in Botswana have been killed and their lives snuffed out by men, who would intimate that they loved them. Kwarare said through their investigations they have observed that intimate relationships end as a result of jealousy and people kill others out of mistrust or obsessive possessiveness.
“We have observed that men kill their partners acting out of jealousy. Murder cases involving intimate partners worry us as the police because when questioning the perpetrators afterwards they will disclose to have acted out of jealousy without any proof or basis of being cheated on.
We have observed that men’s jealousy tends to result in them focussing on the negatives, which usually leads to such passion killings,” said Kwarare. He called on women to be cautious of their partners’ anger, especially when they are insecure as jealousy can be a killer.
Kwarare said usually when women are no longer interested in the relationship men interpret their disinterest as having developed interest in someone else.
“Go boulela go gontsi thata mogo borre, we are pleading with men to control their anger and insecurities to avoid unnecessary killings.
Men should know that jealous thoughts are not the same thing as reality. You might think your lover is cheating or is interested in someone else, but that does not mean they are. We are pleading with partners to refrain from solving their differences with violence,” said Kwarare.
He further called on partners to always seek help when having misunderstandings stating that the police amongst others are always available to offer any kind of help. Kwarare said in some instances men would fight to death amongst themselves in dispute over women.
Kwarare said back in June, acting out of a jealous rage, an ex-lover killed the wrong person after he set fire to a house. At his ex-girlfriend’s home the perpetrator mistakenly killed the wrong person in Thamaga.
He said insecure men are prone to violence calling on women to be cautious when dating men with such leanings and anxious behaviour.