Botswana: poverty fuels woman abuse

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 ... 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 ... The incident, according to Prosecutor Ogomoditse Soonyane, took place on the 2nd of October last year, at Pakis Bar, Botshabelo ward in Maun ... 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 ... 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 ...