07 Dec 2021

The 102 defilement cases registered in the Southern District is a clear indication that children’s rights are being grossly violated.

Speaking during a virtual full council session on Monday, the Southern District Council chairperson, Mr Thamiso Chabalala said the district had also recorded 57 rape cases.

Mr Chabalala expressed a grave concern on the new developing landscape characterised by dysfunctional social fabric, disintegrating social values and high incidences of crime among communities.

He said the alarming crime rates in the district and the country at large were shameful, barbaric and unwarranted acts of abuse.

Mr Chabalala said such acts required a rigorous drive to instil mindset change on perpetrators and communities at large. 

He, however, called upon fellow councillors to police one another as some of those insidious acts were committed right under their noses by people they knew.

“We need to safeguard the lives of our children or otherwise we are going to end up with a shattered, disillusioned and morally disintegrated nation,” he said.

On the Reset Agenda, regarding the mindset change priority, Mr Chabalala said the council should realise that what used to work in the past might not be the best model in pursuance of success today and in the future, hence the need for mindset change.

He said the district leadership should change how they do things in order to make an impact on the lives of the masses.

The chairperson also emphasised the need for the leadership to take a deliberate decision to appreciate and support local products. 

He, however, added that the objective could be realised if locally tailored approaches involving communities were devised to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Mr Chabalala shared that the prospects of change would help detect locally available skills and ensure optimal utilisation of local assets and natural resources.

“We can only foster this through the implementation of government strategic reforms that put citizen economic inclusion at the centre of economic development initiatives,” he said.

He said, “I want us to understand that change comes from within. 

It is intrinsic. 

If we are to instil change in others, we must first change ourselves.”

The district, he noted, should be instinctive enough to appreciate its strengths, weaknesses, available opportunities and threats before expecting the same from others.

“If we can all endeavour to pursue this in a holistic manner, we can attain a united district going forward,” he said.

Government efforts, he said, were remarkable in the roll out of vaccines to its populace to achieve a COVID-19 safe nation.

He highlighted that although the scourge of COVID-19 caused huge disruptions in the communities’ livelihoods, important lessons as well as economic opportunities that were unearthed, were derived from the scourge, thereby compelling Batswana to start envisioning the future differently. ends