‘ALL YOU WANT IS DONOR FUNDING’

LOBAMBA - The Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill (SODV) is being advocated just because stakeholders want to get donor funding.

This was the view of some senators who accused the stakeholders who included the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA)  of not only advocating for a Bill that was copied from overseas countries but for also doing so just to get donor funding.

This was evident yesterday as stakeholders who had come to make submissions had a difficult time explaining in detail the importance of the Bill.
SWAGAA Director, Cebile Henwood, had to spend close to two hours trying to enlighten the uncompromising senators who would now and again demand to know what exactly the intention of the Bill was and the gaps it was meant to fill.
The senators said the Bill was too complex and does not offer a practical way of making it work for Swazis. Even worse, they feel that it is affecting men and the culture of polygamy, as it has provisions that have been copied from agencies such as the United Nations (UN).

 “There is confusion in this Bill. It talks about cases of children being abused. It makes me wonder as to what is the intension because most of the cases being referred to are the ones that are then sent to international organisations to say it is what happens in Swaziland. It is going to be a problem,” said Senator Moi Moi Masilela.

The senators also made it known that they had a problem with some of the terms included in the Bill and suggested that they should be written in a way that was going to be clear to Swazis.
Another clarity that the senators demanded from SWAGAA was if it was necessary to have the term ‘incest’ included in the Bill instead of aligning it with the offence of rape.

Also making it hard for the stakeholders was that the senators kept complaining that they were being made to spend time making submissions that they made years ago on the same Bill.
The senators said they had been to many workshops on the same Bill and that the organisations employed new leaders who came in and wanted them to start afresh.

In her submission, Henwood requested that adopted and stepchildren should be added in the clause that talks about incest, and said they were also victims of abuse.
“Abuse is complicated, evolves over time and enters the fibre of society in numerous ways,” she said.

In her organisation’s request to have the clause on unlawful stalking retained, she spent some time explaining to the senators that it was not in any way focusing on the traditional courting of women (kusoma).

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