24 Jul 2016

The Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi has expressed concern over the use of illicit substances by the youth.

He urged organisations to work together in curbing the pandemic ravaging the youth.

Speaking during the Ministry’s Youth Pitso held on July 22, he said it was meant to engage with organisations and youth to strategise on how to fight the growing abuse of drugs and involvement in crime by the youth. He said young people were an investment which need to be protected by all means.

He said they were driven by a noble position that law enforcement should have a human face, and that they should not be content with meeting each other in courts of law, but should rather ensure that tranquillity persists.

Mr Kgathi said the country’s criminal justice was anchored on the rehabilitation of offenders, public education on what constitutes bad and the good. He said if they could become effective with public education and rehabilitation, they would ensure themselves a bright future which was free of bad behaviour, characterised by time wasting activities such as drugs and alcohol abuse.

He said his ministry was concerned with young people who turn to illicit substances that were detrimental to their well-being and those who commit violent crime against fellow peers and crime against adults and members of society.

“Some of our schools have become hot beds of criminal activities, including gangsterism, drug peddling and downright thuggery,” he said.
He said teachers feel insecure because some of the young people who were supposed to be their students terrorise them and appealed to the youth that they should win their schools public spaces back.

The minister urged the youth to respect their parents as they were the ones who have brought them up to who they were, and because they have a lot of experience in terms of life challenges and could guide them to become well respected persons.

Mr Kgathi urged the youth to work hard for their achievements, adding that  nothing should be handed to them for free and that they have to overcome barriers and ensure they succeed against all odds.

“Failure is not an option for the consequences are too gustily to contemplate, my message to you is choose the right company, avoid short term conveniences that are absolutely meaningless and not value adding at all,” he said.

In addition, the minister called upon the youth to be an embodiment of cultural values that make Batswana who they were, saying if they lose those values it would create a new society that has no belonging.
He said change was a common denominator in life and that the youth should accept and adapt without necessarily losing the identity of who they were as Batswana.  Ends