Over the last few months, this publication and others in the media have carried numerous articles about intimate partner killings which cannot be ignored.

The previous week, we had an article about a police officer shooting his wife and turning the gun on himself, whilst he died, his wife survived and is still in the hospital. Sadly that was not the only article we carried on intimate partner killings. There was the Francistown case, where a young woman allegedly stabbed her ‘former boyfriend’ and many others which were reported throughout the week. As all the reports were coming in, a Botswana Defence Force (BDF) major also shot a private, which unconfirmed reports allege was his girlfriend. If this does not come across as a strong sign for government and other stakeholders to wake up and smell the coffee and act, nothing else will.

Intimate partner killings have remained one of this country’s numerous challenges but as years go by, nothing concrete seems to be on the cards about discussing and acting against this scourge that seems to be bedevilling this beautiful country. We seem to be comfortable brushing everything off and counting one murder after another as statistics.

This should be a wake-up call for us as a nation, for all stakeholders, and all employers! Perhaps this is the time to ask yourself as an employer, whether government or private, what kind of emotional support do you offer your employees? As a country, have we ever taken care of the mental health of our citizens?

Other countries have found it fit to invest in issues of mental health. Why can’t we? Recently a young man committed suicide because he lost a job after missing work for a few days to care for his mother who was said to be ‘mentally unstable’.

He was a breadwinner, and yes, the employer is concerned with productivity as he/she should be, but all employees are human, with families and histories. What kind of support do you have as an employer to assist your employees as they assist you to reach your set goals?

Sadly, we as Africans, take issues of mental health very lightly. A popular saying in Setswana is ‘o ira kabomo, ngwana yo ga le mo betse, thupa ke molemo’ loosely translated ‘he or she is doing it intentionally, you are not punishing this child enough, the rod is the way to discipline’.

Yes, discipline is very important when raising children but so is the parent’s attention on their child’s behaviour and what the cause could be. Many children shut down their trauma and experiences with the hope of making it in life as adults in an attempt to escape from their past, running away from unresolved hurts and unhealed pain but the minute something goes wrong, all hell breaks loose as they have walked through life as ticking time bombs.

Let us come together to save our nation. We have to find solutions to why our men and women resort to violence, murder and suicide.