HIGH COURT judge Justice Evangelista Kabasa has expressed concern over rampant cases of gender-based violence in Midlands province resulting in loss of lives.
Officially opening the Gweru High Court circuit on Monday, Kabasa said 55 murder cases handled by the courts last year were attributed to gender-based violence (GBV).“The statistics for 2023 and this first quarter reflect the ugly scourge of gender-based violence,” Justice Kabasa said.
“Women have been killed by those who vowed to love and cherish them. This is not meant to suggest that men are not victims of gender-based violence.“My focus was deliberately on the weaker sex, the womenfolk. This is so because perpetrators of GBV are predominantly men and the victims are most frequently women and this is due to unequal power relationships.”
Justice Kabasa said it was crucial for authorities to devise strategies to address the problem of GBV to save lives.
Justice Kabasa said the current court circuit had a total of 18 cases, 4 of them related to GBV.
“This is a worrying trend as it shows a 25% and 22% occurrence rate. Gender-based violence remains one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violations globally.”
