On Friday a sizeable amount of time was spent pondering whether to debate or not a very crucial motion by Member of Parliament for Mahalapye West, Yandani Boko.

The youthful legislator had tabled a motion for the House to resolve to urge the President to set up a commission of inquiry on gender-based violence, rape and other sexual offences, as a matter of urgency, in terms of the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 05:02. The anger that engulfed Batswana when Anna Mokgethi, the minister responsible, called for deferment for debate on the motion to just seven days later speaks volumes of how Batswana want to see a solution to this scourge. We therefore call on all the legislators to play a part not just by passing the motion, but rather working together on this enormous task of how to face the problem head on. It would be wiser to put aside political grandstanding and deal honestly with the matter to help Batswana, particularly the vulnerable in such cases. On the same day, The Voice carried a story on two gang rape cases that took place in Letlhakane in a space of a week. That is not all, the village and indeed the country have been recording such cases in multiples.

When presenting his motion in Parliament, Boko shared that in January 2020, in a media release giving an overview of crime statistics over the festive period, the Botswana Police Service

(BPS) indicated that it had recorded 133 rape cases, as compared to 110 registered over the same period in the preceding year. In February 2020, at a National Pitso ya Borre in Molepolole, organised by BPS, Commissioner Keabetswe Makgophe revealed that rape cases in 2019 stood at 2,265. From March 23 to April 4, 2020, the police recorded 31 cases of defilement and 22 cases of rape.  In terms of a study carried out by the World Population Review, published in 2020, Botswana is ranked second in the world out of a 120 countries on the rate of rape incidents. Botswana has a 92.9% incidence rate per 100,000 people. With all this information, it cannot be denied that this is a crisis that has to be dealt with by everyone. It is for all of us as individuals to change our behaviour and police one another on this matter. We know our friends and family members who are capable of doing such acts and it is time we talk to them or allow professionals to step in.It is time we stop harbouring the predators that rape women and children and report them to the authorities for justice to take its course. A re emeng ka dinao Batswana betsho!