The Voice (Francistown)
Nomsa Ndlovu
29 January 2008
A young woman who was publicly beaten, undressed and left naked by the father of her child has pardoned the abuser because she has no means of supporting their baby.
On Friday last week, desperate Seane Lejahe of Maun, on bended knees, begged the Maun magistrate court to drop charges of indecent assault that she had previously laid against her lover Special Constable, Modimoosi Banyatsang of Maun Police Station. Poverty was the reason.
"I am afraid that if you convict and send him to jail I won't be able to support our child because I am unemployed," she said.
Seane explained that their parents had attended to the matter and Banyatsang had shown remorse over what he had done. "All that I need from the court is that we be reconciled."
Shocked by the woman's reasons for withdrawing the case, Magistrate Rebbeca Motsamai asked her if at all it was worth surrendering to maltreatment because of the baby's financial support.
Responding to the Magistrate's question, Banyatsang said that he had no intention of pulling off the woman's clothes, but to remove the cell phone which she had hidden in the pocket of her slacks.
"During that process the pants unzipped and fell off her," he said. The Magistrate reconciled the couple, acquitted and discharged the accused despite the unconvincing reasons.
The incident, according to Prosecutor Ogomoditse Soonyane, took place on the 2nd of October last year, at Pakis Bar, Botshabelo ward in Maun. Seane apparently confronted a female companion of Banyatsang and asked her why she was in possession of her lover's mobile phone.
Gender activist Kelebonye Ntsabane finds the whole saga troubling, especially since cases of withdrawal of cases by abused women were on the rise in Botswana, and were mainly mitigated by poverty and dependency on the abuser.
She warned that usually the abuser temporally reforms fearing prison sentence, but once free the circle of violence continues.
Abuse, Ntsabane warned, does not only wreck the victim psychologically, but also affects the performance of children in all aspects of life, including school. Ntsabane feared that withdrawal of cases of abuse could be contributing to the rise in the so-called passion killings.
Counsellor Mpho Mohopolo from Women Against Rape (AR), in Maun, supported Ntsabane's position but advised that counselling was the first and important step to those who opt out of prosecuting culprits of violence. She advised that prosecution should consider the fact that gender violence is a sickness which needs to be dealt with professionally, therefore all should partner in the fight against it.
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