MBABANE: Senator Themba Masuku,the Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) has been reluctant to declare Gender Based Violence(GBV) a national crisis amid growing cases.
Eswatini Observer, a State owned newspaper reported on Tuesday and quoted the DPM having said there was a need for all stakeholders to work together towards addressing the challenge at hand.
The DPM admitted that GBV was already out of control but stated that declaring it as a national crisis alone was not the solution. He said such initiatives had been undertaken on other issues with little to no improvement.
“Let us all come together as a nation to find a solution to ending GBV and not look to Government alone,” said the Deputy Prime Minister as quoted by the Eswatini Observer.
The DPM challenged the civil society, traditional authorities, families and the nation at large to come up with a proposal on how this could be addressed.
Speaking to this Swaziland News, Nonhlanhla Dlamini,the Executive Director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse(SWAGAA) described the sentiments of the Deputy Prime Minister(DPM)as irresponsible.
“This is an irresponsible statement coming from DPM.This is not different from saying enacting the SODV Act will not solve the problem or having a one stop center will not solve the problem.There is not a single country that has completely eradicated GBV but countries have demonstrated a political will to show that they are concerned about the the escalating rate of GBV. To me the statement says as Government we don't care and we are not going to make any effort,” said the SWAGAA Director.
Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku.