Over 50 men report GBV in Zambezi in one year

Over 50 men in the Zambezi region have opened cases of alleged physical abuse against their partners since November last year.

Senior inspector Rahele Tawana, the head of the Zambezi police’s gender-based violence (GBV) unit, yesterday told The Namibian these cases are out of 302 GBV cases reported in the region.

This includes 57 cases of minors being raped.

“It is challenging to get men to report GBV cases, despite there being many cases. However, the GBV awareness campaigns we are conducting in the communities are bringing changes.

“Men are now slowly starting to visit our office to report GBV cases,” Tawana said.

“These men have opened cases of physical abuse, while other cases involved malicious damage to property. We encourage more men to speak up,” she said.

Tawana said the police have arrested some of the women implicated, while other cases were withdrawn for reasons such as having children together.

WOMEN ARRESTED FOR ABUSE

“In some instances, men withdraw cases for the sake of their children,” she said.

Tawana said platforms, such as the fifth National Men’s Conference, which is currently underway at Katima Mulilo, are imperative to bring more awareness of the challenges men are facing.

The theme of this year is ‘Empowering Men as Agents of Change: Ending Gender-Based Violence and Building Safer Communities’.

The two-day conference aims to create a platform for men to discuss issues affecting them, including suicide, mental health, financial literacy, positive masculinity and gender-based violence.

‘MOCKED BY POLICE’

Katima Mulilo-based community activist Riaan Siyama says that during his community engagement he still finds men being mocked for opening a GBV case against a woman by the police and society at large.

Hence, GBV cases involving men as victims remain underreported.

“More men will come out and speak up about being abused by women if society or the police stop mocking them. They are being silenced by such attitudes and end up suffering in silence.

“Service providers must take men that are victims of GBV as they do women and treat their cases with the same sensitive nature,” he said.

Men’s conference attendee Silas Shoolongela says men believe they would not get help.

“Our culture is the main reason men are not speaking up because it’s believed men cannot be abused by women. Not speaking up is eventually driving them to kill or beat women when they had enough of the abuse.

“However, I would like to discourage men from resorting to violence and to rather seek help or report their abuse to the authorities,” he says.

Minister of gender equality and child welfare Emma Kantema, during the official opening of the conference, said men’s physical and mental health are often overlooked.

Statistically, men are less like likely to visit doctors regularly and less likely to talk about their mental health or seek help, leading to preventable illnesses.

“Statistics further show that more men are taking their lives in our country than women. In 2023/24, Namibia reported an alarming 542 deaths by suicide.

“Out of that number, five were girls, eight were boys, 80 were women and 449 were men,” Kantema said.

The Oshana region had the highest suicide rate of 29.9 per 100 000, with the Zambezi region recording 16.8 per 100 000.

“It is also heart-breaking to indicate that there are currently more men in prisons than women in Namibia,” the minister said.

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