Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Health Reporter
*SIPHIWE spent 11 years in an abusive marriage, silently taking in the bashings, verbal assaults and the trauma because her husband was a trusted police officer. The husband would lock her inside their house when going to work claiming that other men would snatch her away from him.
She would only get out of the house when her children knocked off from school. The intensity of the beatings worsened with each passing day until her neighbours made an anonymous report to Mudi wa Pfulufhelo Safe Haven — a safe shelter for victims of gender-based violence in Beitbridge.
With her physical handicap, she could not run away without help and eventually became helpless in her home. Her three children would witness some of the abuses but were also scared of reporting their father who was a well-known policeman.
Officers first posed as potential customers as the family was selling broiler chickens and after a few visits, they managed to rescue Siphiwe from the abusive marriage and took her in.
She eventually managed to get a protection order against the husband and to date has been able to live peacefully.
Siphiwe is one of the 7 664 victims of GBV recorded in Zimbabwe in 2021. Statistics from the United Nations Population Fund show that from January to November 2021, 7 664 GBV cases were reported through the National GBV Hotline, representing a 16 percent increase compared to the same period in 2020 (6 600) and a 74 percent increase compared with the same period in 2019 (4 405).
Of the reported cases, 94 percent of the survivors are women and girls. GBV remains under-reported mainly due to factors such as the economic dependence on the perpetrator (90 percent of cases are intimate partners), fear of stigma and unavailability of multi-sectoral essential services.
Unlike Siphiwe, a majority of the survivors are never brave enough to testify in court against abusive partners and are likely to withdraw reported cases before trials start. The founder of Mudi wa Pfulufhelo Safe Haven Mrs Babongile Gora said the reported cases are a fraction of the reality on the ground.
She said although Mudi wa Pfulufhelo offers temporary shelter to survivors of SGBV from all over Zimbabwe for a maximum of six months, some have stayed for close to two years. The centre offers psycho-social support, trauma counselling and economic empowerment training in income-generating projects to abused women and girls of all ages.
“We offer a safe shelter to victims of gender-based violence survivors from across the country although we are based in Beitbridge. Cases of gender-based violence worsened during the Covid-19 lockdowns,” said Mrs Gora.
She said despite efforts that have been made to fight SGBV in communities, some women who come to her shelter insist on going back to their abusers after a few days.
“Some even withdraw cases secretly and do not want to co-operate when police are involved as they are economically dependent on the abusers,” said Mrs Gora.
She said the centre has also been offering services to estranged couples in need of counselling.
“I think we still have many abused women out there who continue suffering in silence hence the need for us to continue reaching out. We also encourage economic independence so that victims do not overstay in relationships as they risk being killed,” said Mrs Gora.
According to an Afrobarometer report released recently, gender-based violence is the most important women’s rights issue.
“Most citizens said it is never justified for men to use physical force to discipline their wives, a view that is shared across all key demographic groups and provinces. More than 52 percent of citizens said GBV is common in homes or in the community,” read the report.
In addition, the findings revealed that most of the respondents concurred that gender-based violence was a criminal matter that required the involvement of the police rather than a personal affair that should be handled within the family.–@thamamoe
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