02 Sep 2020

Members of Moicity Dingwetsi Association have been implored to do their utmost to uphold and live the ideals of a respectable marriage.

The call was made by Boela Gae Marriage Seminar and Secretarial Services director, Bishop Morategi Selapa in an interview on Monday,  following a weekend seminar in Moiyabana, at which he addressed the association’s members on financial management in marriage.

Bishop Selapa disclosed in the interview that he had found the subject of the seminar worthy of extensive discussion as lack of commonality regarding the use of finances in marriage had proved to be a challenge in countless marriages.

He said if allowed to persist, the discord often led to marriages crumbling, hence it was crucial that concerted efforts be made towards preventing the ill.

He observed that in his many years of providing marital counselling, he had come to notice that the handling of family finances in a marriage was often not given the attention it deserved, a scenario that he said, more often than not, resulted in spouses continuing to handle their finances to the exclusion of each other.
“Even when married in community of property, a couple who have no idea how to handle their finances as one or simply do not take seriously the need to do so, will continue to live as individuals in as far as their money is concerned. If not addressed, this habit with finances, will spread to the rest of the marital property and will become ‘cancerous’,” he explained.
Bishop Selapa, who is also chairperson of the Serowe Ministers’ Fraternal, commended Moicity Dingwetsi Association for addressing this thorny issue, further hailing the association for also making the war against Gender Based Violence (GBV) part of its mandate.
He said it was heartwarming to see Moiyabana women at the forefront of the war against this societal ill, particularly since females were in most cases the victims in GBV cases.

Giving an overview of the association, Moicity Dingwetsi Association chairperson, Ms Obopeng Keatshotse said since its inception in 2018, the association had seen its numbers grow from five to 51 members.

Ms Keatshotse stated that the association sought to fight GBV, encourage prudent use of finances in marriages, breaking the poverty cycle in married women, as well as restoring the dignity of the marriage institution.

Ms Keatshotse said since the association came into being, they had maintained the sole topic on finances, and would, in the course of time, introduce other topics that could be beneficial to married women.

Their continuous discussion of the same topic, she said, was necessitated by the fact that the lack of a common vision regarding the handling of finances in marriages could have many undesirable consequences.

So far, she said the association had received encouraging reports of stability and growth pertaining to the handling of finances and other forms of marital properties.

Moreover, she said the inclusion of older and in some cases widowed women in the association had been of great benefit to members as the older women always had nuggets of wisdom to share with the younger generation of married women. ENDS