18 Sep 2013

The Minister of Youth Sport and Culture, Mr Shaw Kgathi, has called upon parents and guardians to work together in raising and empowering the youth.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Mmadinare on September 16, Mr Kgathi said it was imperative for parents to play a role in the socialisation of their children. Mr Kgathi said elders should guide youth and direct them towards positive life so that they would not engage in social ills such as alcohol, drug abuse and other deviant behavour.

“Moral degradation is a big problem in our society,” he said. “Parents need to play a major role.” He noted that as many Batswana were Christians, parents should mould their children in the Christian way of life.

“The only salvation is to fear and respect God,” he added. Mr Kgathi said 17.8 per cent of the youth were unemployed and 41 per cent of them were aged between 15 and 19, although the latter should be in school.

He said investigations established that the youth aged between 15 and 19 left school because of teenage pregnancy, absconding from school or were junior certificate drop-outs. He underscored the need for parents to empower the youth by, among other things, encouraging them to return to school or to tap into youth empowerment programmes.

He added that parents should make their land available for their children’s income-generating projects. He added that the government has endorsed a procedure where parents, Village Development Committees or village leadership will informed about the youth getting government funding to start projects.

The move is to give parents a way of guiding and helping youth so that the projects reach their potential. “Government funds aimed at empowering youth end up going to waste,” he said.

He urged the youth to use their talents to earn a living. The minister called on parents to attend Parents Teachers Association meetings to be able to keep pace with the progress and development of their children at school.

On other issues, Mr Kgathi said because poverty levels in some parts of Botswana were high due to drought and the foot and mouth disease, the Rural Development Council, came up with a procedure where cattle farmers in such areas would be allowed to sell their livestock to butcheries in their area. This is to empower farmers and butchery owners in such areas with money from cattle sales.. Ends