ENACT SODV BILL INTO LAW

Sir,

For the past years I have followed proceedings in Parliament with interest. I have read every copy of the Times of Swaziland with the hope that one day I will come across a story titled Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill is finally enacted into law.

I have listened to our national radio and hoped that I will get the news that Bill has been finally enacted into law.
To my disappointment, nothing has been done and the law that seeks to protect people against any kind of abuse has not been passed into law.

I’m not a person who likes to complain or someone who will be seen fighting government but my concern is what is happening to this Sexual Offences Bill, will it ever be passed into law? I can’t go to Parliament and deliver my petition because I will be viewed as someone who is against government.

Over the years going back to the last Parliament, the Sexual Offences Bill was still a Bill.
Let me try to make it clear to Swazis on why do we need the Bill to be passed into law. Let me try to make it clear even to an old woman in the rural area.

l Our courts will be able to give  swift fines to those who will be found on the wrong side of the law.
l The international community will respect the kingdom and they will take us seriously.   
l People will respect each other, knowing that there is a law that is guarding them. Our young girls will grow up in a free society without abuse.

l It will be a great gift to the nation as we celebrate 50 years of independence.
l Women will be viewed as human beings not objects. One man once said to me, ‘I can’t stand my wife’s breasts so every day I have made it clear to her to always wear a bra’.

I shook my head and left that man standing; what kind of a man does this to his wife? With the Domestic Violence Bill these issues will be tackled.

The kingdom is faced with a high rate of abuse and to respond to this, we need this Bill to be passed into a law.  

Msimisi ‘Prodigal Son’ Matsebula
Matsapha  
 

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