19 May 2016

Disintegration of the extended family is partly to blame for the emerging social ills.Therefore, government was mooting for revitalisation of the extended family as one of the ways to bring societal cohesion.

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso, said this during commemoration of the international day of the family in Artesia on Wednesday.

She said the extended family system brought a collective and communal approach for its members and encouraged collective sharing of resources, achievements and challenges.

Therefore members of the family took care of each other hence issues of poverty, child ill-discipline and teenage pregnancy were addressed at societal level.

She said uncles and aunts played a critical role in the upbringing of the children in the extended family which quelled youth delinquency.

Ms Tshireletso said as a country, the society needed cohesion that was brought about by the extended family, adding that a strong family foundation was the pinnacle of a strong society.

In addition, the assistant minister said the whole family system in recent years had been faced with challenges such as poverty, unemployment, increase in crime rates, sexual abuse, drugs, gender based violence and divorces among others.

And she pointed out that a strong extended family could have helped to address some of the alluded challenges.She said cohabitation is one of the challenges confronting many families in the country and the phenomenon disadvantages children as they lack sense of belonging. ‘In the event that those parents who are cohabiting die, their children encounter serious hurdles to make legal claim of their inheritance,” she added.

Kgosi George Thwane of Artesia said a family is core to the building of a nation.

He said the country has been built through families which were instilling the Setswana culture in the upbringing of their children. Regrettably, Kgosi Thwane said the traditional family upbringing has been lost due to modernisation and added that nowadays immediate family members do not play any significant role in the family.

 The day was celebrated under the theme: Families, healthy lives and sustainable future. ENDS