04 Mar 2025

A woman is like a mirror reflection of beauty of the society and fine lines of social ills that penetrate deep with each passing season.

Like a winter rose, she bears through the harsh times and soldiers on to better days, that’s just how phenomenal she is. These are sentiments held by poets such as Maya Angelou and William Dunbar and echoed by chairperson of the Serowe District Council, Mr Atamelang Thaga at the International Women’s Day Women Summit and Wellness event in Serowe.

Addressing the theme: For All Women and Girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment, Mr Thaga said girls and women needed to be empowered and be given equal opportunities like their male counterparts, opining that such a move would crank up productivity and fuel economic growth.

With empowered women and girls, there may possibly be a reduction in risky behaviours that may lead to cases of abuse, neglect and gender-based violence. He pleaded with fathers to be present in the upbringing of their daughters, which he said would set the example of what love and care was and in the process deterring girls from seeking to replace fatherly love with elderly sexual partners.

For his part, Dr Kabunda Kabunda, a medic, said that it was imperative to give women the best care, especially health wise. He said empowering women would make it easier for them to access quality Sexual Reproductive Health Services and Cancer screening.

He said educating women empowered them to make right choices about their bodies and health. He regretted the rising cases of cancer among women, especially cervical and breast cancer. Moreover he said more women were succumbing to cancers that affect the reproductive system simply because they shied away from screenings for fear of discomfort of procedures such as Pap smear, which involved the speculum usage.

For her part, Special Constable Priscilla Obopile of Serowe Police Service said women and girls faced many forms of abuse, ranging from emotional, psychological to economic abuse. Statistics show that from 2024, Serowe has registered 119 cases of rape, 91 cases of defilement and 27 case of neglect and cruel treatment.

She further said there was a growing trend of people in places of power, be it supervisors or employers soliciting sexual intercourse from their female subordinates in promise for elevation or promotion in workplaces. Moreover, women were reported to partake in risky behaviours in order to gain financial freedom or to simply put bread on the table.

This, she said was heavily perpetuated by the fact that statistically women were underpaid and were prone to financial abuse causing economic dependency.

Additionally, she said though rape cases continued escalating, women and girls should take caution from falsely accusing anyone of rape or sexual assault as such was an offence, of which if convicted one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years. She also urged all to report cases of GBV, incest, child marriage, neglect and abuse to authorities.

Mrs Abaleng Khombane of the Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs was optimistic that through gender equality and equity, the nation shall reach greater heights with a growing inclusive economy.

In closing, Kgosi Seretse Peter Khama said that cultural practices such as child marriage should be shunned as they ruined the future of girls and rob them of opportunities to be impactful in the society.  He further cautioned against disadvantaging girl children in terms of inheritance, citing that when distributing inheritance, families oftentimes did not give the girl child land, farms, cattle and or wells.

This, he said, was heavily perpetuated by the patriarchal thinking that only the male child bore rights to inheritance of those assets, as daughters were bound to be married off, whereas the sons kept the lineage going.

He advocated for the review and practicing Bojale and Bogwera, saying such institutions would teach the young man how to live with and respectfully treat an empowered woman, in turn, young women would also learn how to respectfully treat men and boys. This, he said, would bridge the gap between the two and ensure they lived harmoniously together and in turn help build a powerful nation. ENDS