17 Mar 2022

The only tried and tested remedy for youth delinquency is a stroke of the cane, according to Kgosi Kelapile Sesanyane of Kaduwe lands near Jwaneng.

 

Kgosi Sesanyane, who felt that the law is too lenient on delinquents as a results of ‘too many rights’, aired his opinion during a Pitso ya Borre event in Jwaneng on Friday.

 

The objective of the meeting was to map a way forward on the rising cases of youth delinquency in town. Kgosi Sesanyane was speaking after Kgosi Oageng Mosole of Raphalane kgotla in Jwaneng indicated that the youth faced many challenges and needed guidance of the elders. 

 

“The fact that elderly members of our society have lived this far means they have experienced many challenges in life whose solutions they could share with the youth, for the betterment of our town,” he said. Kgosi Mosole also indicated that the elderly were a reference point in as far as morality was concerned. 

 

He also said that it was time for society to do away with some of its customs that were no longer serving any purpose in the current trends. He also expressd a need for elders to visit schools and guide students, as well as a need to resuscitate cultural events such as dikgafela in Jwaneng.

 

Assistant superintendent Tlhabologo Bojosi of Jwaneng police also conceded the rampancy of youth delinquency, especially lack of respect to elders in Jwaneng and surrounding villages such as Sese and Mokhomma. “The youth in Jwaneng abuse parents to the extent of beating them up, although most parents do not report. 

 

Grand children mostly stay home with grannies when parents are at work, and that is when the abuse comes in,” he said, before indicating that the most prevalent  type of abuse was verbal.

 

“All these indicates a need to find a solution before the situation gets worse, so we encourage parents to report such abuse because only around five per cent of incidents are reported,” he said.  Ass supt Bojosi also castigated parents that allowed children to cohabit, which he said was against Setswana culture. 

 

“According to our customs, mosadi o bonelwa kwa ga mmaagwe, ga go inyadisiwe, so raise a voice against such issues,” he said.

Principal community development officer, Mr Molefe Mokomeng cautioned that children copied foreign behaviours from television and other media, which may not necessarily be in line with ‘our cultural ways’. He, therefore, said that such a vice called for parents to regulate the children’s time on TV and internet.

 

 For his part, district AIDS coordinator, Mr Kebonyemodisa Watota said HIV and AIDS were abating in Jwaneng as the current prevalence was at 12.8 per cent of the total population, which he said was better compared to other areas.

 

He said the prevalence was mostly high on women, but indicated that there was complacence in testing by both genders so much that just about 55 per cent of the population knew their status. 

 

Mr Watota also raised a concern at the rising incidents of teenage pregnancy, saying last year alone, 40 teenagers got pregnant. BOPA