Where is our moral conscience?

Crime reports continue to be dominated by rape cases and it is heart-breaking that incidences of children being raped and sexually abused are soaring – experts have confirmed this sad situation. What is disturbing is the fact that this dire situation is a common phenomenon throughout the entire Namibia. That these heinous acts are perpetrated against vulnerable and defenceless children, toddlers in some cases, and calls upon all citizens of this country to question their moral consciences. A lasting solution to the anarchy should be given national priority. Police reports indicate a worrisome upward trend in the number of sexual assaults on minors, taking a look at the prevailing circumstances where the assaults take place, the crisis is thwarted by lack of political and social responsibility. Both the biological and political guardians and parents of these child victims are fanning the sexual assaults. If everyone were playing their roles effectively, this would not be the case. We have repeatedly castigated the laissez-faire attitude of the government to expedite the implementation of deterrent laws to prompt perpetrators to think twice before committing sexual assault. It boggles the mind – where we are heading to as a nation – if we allow our young children to be exposed to criminals. The girl child is the goose that lays the golden egg. How will the population grow if she is killed emotionally and physically? The government as the parent of citizens is guilty of failing to provide adequate manpower to deal with the reported sexual and gender violence, especially in rural and remote areas. The acute shortage of social workers and inadequate justice for the victims of sexual violence, where cases take years to be concluded, inflict more pain and suffering than anything else. Vital evidence is forgotten, lost or disappears, along with the perpetrators freed as a result. Government must also take tough measures to criminalise harmful cultural norms and values that allow child marriages. Parents, who remain silent about sexual abuse of children, in order to maintain family relations, must also face the full force of the law. All collaborative systems that expose these innocent victims to such dastardly deeds must be overhauled in the name of our moral consciences.