Public Education Can Help Fight Defilement

Monitor Correspondent | Monday May 27, 2019 11:44

Letlhakane police in an interview with this publication registered a concern on the ever-increasing rape and defilement cases in their policing area.  Letlhakane station commander, Michael Maphephu says they have made an observation that some of the communities in their policing area lack information, especially when it comes to defilement.

This dark cloud does not only affect the people of Letlhakane and surrounding areas, but it is a nationwide problem that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Many perpetrators of these crimes are male, and it is extremely rare to come across a woman having a sexual relationship with a minor.

It is of course common knowledge that some of these men, defile minors, with full knowledge that it is not only wrong to do that, but also that the barbaric act is punishable by law.  Maphephu says he believes one of the reason his policing area is seeing a rise in the number of defilement cases, is due to lack of public education.

While some people might take this lightly, lack of public education, is one of the contributing factors, especially amongst certain communities. While some of the statistics are not captured, it is common knowledge that we still have cases where either their peers or older men impregnate minors, and these sometimes go unrecorded because the parents of the girl might see it as normal. There is need to intensify education both in rural and urban areas, targeting all different segments of the society. The girl-child needs as much education as the boy-child on issues of defilement, and adults also need to be sensitised on the issue of legal age of consent. Times have changed and students, both male and female seem to be in a hurry to become adults, as it is not uncommon to come across secondary school students who are sexually active.

We need to go back to the drawing board as a society and see where we went wrong.  One local newspaper recently carried an article about a young boy, whose teachers found performing sexual moves, which he claimed he watched from his mother’s smart phone. 

The responsible thing for parents who store pornographic material in their phones would be to put security measures to ensure that their young children do not have access to such.  The need for public education on these issues cannot be over emphasised for all the segments of our society.