Ritual Murder: Opposition women’s wings call for action
Murder for ritual purposes, particularly of women and children, has recently escalated as it has become more frequent. Its escalation has led to some fearing that if nothing is done, the diabolic act may reach pandemic proportions.
The dastardly act of witchcraft has children, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly as its main targets. The ritual murder in such cases entails the cutting off of the victim’s so-called wealth-generating body parts, while the victim is still alive.
Tragically, the victims’ parents hardly even get justice as in most cases, they are never even able to hire a lawyer due to financial constraints. “Part of the problem is that government seems to pretend that the practice does not exist at all. In order to make the appropriate legislation, we need to admit that, ritual murder exists. The menace of ritual murder is unfortunately, part of our belief systems just like Gender Based Violence (GBV),” said the president of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) Women’s Wing, Tshimologo Dingake. Her view is that the high levels of illiteracy and poverty in the country due to the economic set-up does not help matters as the people tend to become mystical in an attempt to make sense of their economic and social situation.
“Due to illiteracy, people tend to understand everything in mystical fashion including believing that the portions of a dead person will fortify them against their enemies, as well as empower them wealth wise,” said Dingake, who is concerned about government’s silence on the pandemic.
For her part, the president of the Botswana National Front (BNF) women’s wing, Bonang Nkoane considers ritual murder as a major social ill which needs to be addressed urgently. “This thing is getting worse by the day. Sadly, government remains mum as if unconcerned. It is high time civil society, political parties and all the peace-loving formations such as the churches and faith organisations in general stood up and raised their voices. “They must go to the streets and toyi-toyi,” said Nkoane.
She does not think government will attend to the problem without pressure from the citizenry. The Botswana Labour Party (BLP) women’s wing president, Makgoa Moring, also wants the nation to speak out loud and in unison. “We do not seem to be conscious with regards to our rights.
Government is way too silent in this difficult time in our life as a nation,” said Moring. Politicians, businessmen and women as well as farmers, have been fingered for rituals murders. Meanwhile, traditional doctors have been accused of facilitating the deed as they are the ones who execute the killing. In most instances, such cases die a natural death and soon the matter is forgotten.