21 Nov 2016

Parents and different stakeholders have been urged to protect children from all kinds of illtreatments as failure to do so has the potential to force such children into societal ills like prostitution, drug and sexual abuse as well as making them susceptible to child trafficking.

Molepolole chief magistrate, Ms Linah Mokibe-Oahile said during a three-day Child Protection workshop held in Molepolole recently, that it was disappointing that courts still register cases that involve the illtreatment of children despite several advices on child protection.

She said it was disheartening that in some cases children were abused by close relatives who should otherwise be entrusted with their safety.
Some parents, she added were still reluctant to report such cases as perpetrators were considered family providers.

Ms Mokibe-Oahile said some of those neglected children end up accommodated in hospitals to receive proper care, something she said was not necessarily the role of a hospital under normal circumstances.

She stressed that the Children’s Act of 2009 entrenches the Setswana culture and its support was not only from government but from community leaders, village child protection committees and other service providers.

She said in Setswana culture, a child was never neglected even in the absence of its nuclear family as the extended family was always there to care for.
A child belonged not just to the parents but the community. She however, said it was a pity that such support systems had since waned. BOPA