A MALE pressure group, Varume Svinurai/Vhukani Madoda, has blamed infidelity for the increase in cases of gender-based violence (GBV) in Zimbabwe.
by VENERANDA LANGA
National chairperson of the group Fred Misi told NewsDay in an interview yesterday that his organisation recorded 40 cases of men who said they were victims of GBV while some boys also complained of being sodomised.
Misi said the difference between men and women was that females were very vocal and reported cases whenever they were victimised, while males suffered in silence for fear of being ridiculed.
“GBV is usually caused by infidelity by both men and women, and in most cases it is exacerbated by economic problems where partners separate with one of them going to work outside the country thereby causing extramarital affairs,” Misi said.
“This year a lot of men were victims of GBV due to infidelity and Varume Svinurai alone dealt with 40 cases, which is a sign that there might be more cases that go unreported,” he said.
Misi said there was need to respect the sanctity of marriage to reduce GBV. As an example, he cited a recent case where a woman ended up killing her baby after throwing a pot full of boiling water which was aimed at the husband on the sleeping baby. The husband had allegedly been having an extramarital affair.
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“In 2014 we worked on 15 cases of men who were abused, and this year the figure has increased to 40. Violence perpetrated on a man or woman is bad and should not happen. The rise in figures of men that are violated might mean that more men are reporting cases of GBV.”
He said he was worried about increasing cases of sodomy and early child marriages reported in newspapers, adding the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should introduce programmes to absorb poor children who fail to go to high school so that they are not idle.
“We recommend that children should be kept at school, or if they cannot afford school fees, they should be involved in programmes that will keep them busy so that they do not engage in criminal activities or be forced into early marriages,” Misi said.
He said as Zimbabwe marks the end of the 16 Days of Activism against GBV, the issue should be publicised, with more attention given to victims and perpetrators, instead of meetings on GBV being held at hotels.
