SODV THIS, SODV THAT …

Not since the ouster of the independence constitution in 1973 has a piece of legislation impacted emaSwati in their slumber and comfort zones like the now much talked about Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act of 2018 has achieved in so short a time since its enactment.

The SODV Act is now competing with the similarly controversial King’s Proclamation to the Nation of April 12, 1973 for a pride of place in the annals of the history of the Kingdom of Eswatini. The jury is still out if last year’s name change of the country from Swaziland to Eswatini is in the same league albeit that too - especially in the manner it was effected - also sapped the energy of the nation and was a national talking point.

The King’s Proclamation to the Nation was the ouster of the Westminster-styled independence constitution. This singular piece of law – some still argue to this day that it was illegal and unconstitutional – returned the nation to the shackles barely five years into short-lived freedom from colonial occupation.

rights

This law had a numbing effect on the senses because it criminalised emaSwati’s inalienable rights and liberties bequeathed them by God and thus irrevocably disabling their capacity to live a normal life. For at the stroke of a pen the people immediately found themselves unable to freely talk and discuss political issues and how they were governed.

Overnight the State usurped the people’s right to open political discourse and to make choices apropos by whom and how they wanted to be governed.
To enforce the new order, draconian pieces of legislation, such as the infamous 60 days Detention Order that was borrowed and customised from apartheid South Africa’s 90-day detention law to enforce conformity on those with dissenting voices.

From there onwards to the present, emaSwati have been denied free political activity hence political parties remain outlawed from contesting political power in favour of the Tinkhundla political system. The long-term effect of this was the arrest of rapid development of the country because only a minority determined policy and national imperatives while marginalising the collective intellectual of divergent viewpoints from the larger body of emaSwati.

Radical

As I see it, the SODV Act will, in all intents and purposes, radically change some elements of our way of life. Things that hitherto were taken for granted have suddenly become deadly serious. The art of courting a girl, for example, is most likely going to disappear completely ostensibly because there is a thin line between courtship and stalking in the context of this law. I recall while growing up in the bundus being tutored to always acknowledge the beauty of a girl passing by even without necessarily having any intention of proposing to her. Not doing so was considered rude and uncouth. But come the SODV Act of 2018, all that has changed and could now lead one straight to jail without a free pass.

But before I am accused of patriarchal tendencies and condoning abuse of the fairer sex and in the event getting maligned, I am fully behind this piece of law. And I am not about to lobotomize same but rather to reflect on how it might irreversibly alter our way of life.

To begin with, there is a need to caution against the stereotype and prejudices that only males are capable perpetrators of abuse or violence of whatever form against females and children. Personally I think whatever research has been carried out on this topic merely scratched the surface and focused on the physical and left the emotional aspect unattended.

As human beings we are conditioned by the environment we live in that it is directly impacted by customs and traditions. In this context, men are supposed to be super human with no emotions whatsoever. Consequently, any abuses that are visited on the man are likely to be kept in the closet, away from the prying eyes of others, because it is unheard of that a man can be abused by, especially, a woman.

But these things happen and in particular at an emotional level that, unlike physical abuse, is almost subliminal and not easily visible yet its scars are deeper than those left by physical abuse. But men are supposed to be strong and unbreakable and society views as taboo for any man to complain of abuse by a female, especially his wife. Yet these things happen and seemingly none or very little research has gone into unravelling this paradigm ostensibly because of societal mindsets and conditioning.

harsher

Empirical evidence abounds since the SODV Act became operational in which men reporting abuse cases to the police have been ridiculed and turned away because of societal norms, mindsets and conditioning. Furthermore, it is likely for a man convicted under this law to get a harsher sentence than a woman in similar circumstances as we have witnessed since the law in question became operational.

Such idiosyncrasies point to an urgent need for re-educating and reorienting not just those directly dealing with these issues, such as police and judicial officers, but society at large. From where I am standing a lot of people believe that the Act was exclusively enacted for abusive men and has nothing to do with but was expressly created to protect women and children.

Ultimately the environment in which this law has been unleashed has to be re-engineered so that it is conducive and serves its intended purpose – eradicating all forms and facets of sexual and domestic abuse. And this begins with the change of mindsets and attitudes of society on these matters. 

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