24 Mar 2020

Debswana Jwaneng Mine wellness coordinator, Ms Tiyo Tibe says Batswana do not seem to have learned from the HIV/AIDS pandemic and seem destined to repeat the same mistakes with coronavirus.

Speaking at a session to sensitise Ward Development Committee (WDC) members in Jwaneng on the basics of coronavirus on Monday, Ms Tibe said when HIV and AIDS first appeared, Batswana failed to abide by basic precautions such as using protective gloves when handling patients.

“People were reluctant to use protective gloves when handling HIV and AIDS patients because they viewed the move as equal to treating them as lepers, especially that most patients were close relative like their own children,” she said.

Ms Tibe said Batswana seemed to be making similar mistakes with COVID-19 as they were failing to embrace guidelines such as social distancing and use of sanitisers for personal hygiene.

“Such complacency will lead to the virus ravaging us like HIV and AIDS,” she said.

She said other concerns were failure to follow guidelines on self-isolation and continuing to cross to countries with confirmed cases.

Ms Tibe also urged parents to be open with their children and share with them any message on the pandemic to prevent them from relying on the often unreliable social media. She said the youth were hungry for information, and that it was upon parents to ensure that they filtered correct information to them.

She cited a recent incidence where some in the social media alleged that there was a confirmed case of coronavirus in the country, which she said was not true.

“Such fake news has the potential to cause panic among people,” she said.

Ms Tibe also informed WDC members that just like parents, they also had a responsibility to play as community leaders in ensuring that government guidelines and messages on prevention and self-care concerning the coronavirus pandemic were passed to the people.

She said to better play that role, they had to be able to distinguish between fake and genuine news, especially in the era of social media where anybody could peddle their opinions and easily share hearsay.

“There are media sources that you can always trust with proper information such as the government media and the District Health Management Team,” she said.

She also said the Jwaneng leadership would time and again meet to revise the plan against the pandemic for the area to keep it up to date.

Attendees on the other hand advised that the police should be more involved in enforcing the guidelines on social isolation as it had been noted that shebeens continued to operate throughout the day and night.

They also requested that Ipelegeng workers should be sensitised about the dangers of the virus as they continued to share tools at work, and also promised that as WDCs, they would appeal to the community to put efforts in the preventative measures and not leave everything to government.

The meeting was to sensitise WDC members on issues such as symptoms of coronavirus, how it was transmitted and preventative measures and controls.

The intention was to also equip them so that they would be enlightened to share the message with communities. ENDs