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Herald Reporter

Gender-based violence and infidelity among married couples in Guruve have become widespread social ills that are increasing in prevalence and have led to the collapse of many marriages with most women involved ending up crippled and injured.

Villagers said there was a lot of gender-based violence and infidelity among both married men and women in Guruve and while this can be addressed, violence should never be a solution.

Mrs Martha Mazhambe castigated gender-based violence saying: “Spouses respond violently in the event they discover their spouses have cheated on them.”

Another villager Mrs Teclah Mukwangariva said the best course of action to take when a spouse has cheated is divorce because the cheating partner has the potential to bring in infectious diseases.

Research has shown that children who come from broken families sometimes face problems in later life.

Since the start of lockdown, those dealing with gender-based violence in Zimbabwe have seen an increase in reported cases, including psychological, physical, sexual and economic forms of violence along with a rise in severity of the violence. Under-reporting of gender-based violence was already a significant issue in Zimbabwe due to harmful social norms and stigma. 

Police recently expressed concern over increasing cases of domestic violence which in some instances end up with deaths.