31 May 2022

 The Lobatse Town Council (LTC) is working closely with families of ‘street kids’ in the town to rehabilitate the children back to normal life.

The deputy town clerk for technical services, Mr Lentswe Lesenyegile, said on Monday that the rising number of street kids was a concern in Lobatse.

Officially opening a workshop aimed at sharing parenting skills with families of the affected children, Mr Lesenyegile called on the society to collaborate in moulding children into good citizens.

“Every stakeholder should join hands to ensure that children are given proper guidance from a young age. If we let our children pick bad habits and go astray, we will have a bad society in the future,” said the deputy town clerk.

The LTC Social and Community Development (S&CD) head, Ms Keamogetse Mooki said about 20 street kids had been scavenging for food and begging for money from strangers at the town centre, for some time.

She said council officials decided to engage both the children and their parents in an effort to address the problem.

“We interviewed and assessed the children, and they said they were forced by hunger to scavenge for food and beg for money. Some of the children said they were neglected by their parents, while others admitted that they were made to go into the streets by peer pressure,” said Ms Mooki.

She said the children, most of whom were of primary school age, were exposed to alcohol and drug abuse.

“They admitted that they were involved in alcohol and drugs. They also opened up and also told us that they have committed house breaks to steal money to buy food and other things they required,” she added.

Ms Mooki said LTC decided to take the children on a behavioural rehabilitation camp at Motlhabaneng village some weeks ago, following the completion which they found it proper to engage parents in a three-day parenting skills empowerment workshop.

“Our intention is to build back these children into the type of children required by the society. We want them to continue with their schooling,” she said.

Some of the parents admitted that they had neglected their children, while others said the children became uncontrollable after being influenced by some known bad people in the township.

Peleng customary court president, Ms Tshegofatso Setumo advised parents to stop neglecting children  and urged them to act as good role models. Ms Setumo blamed the neglect of the children on the rampant alcohol abuse by some parents.

“Some parents spend the whole day drinking alcohol and not caring whether their children had eaten something or whether they had attended school. This has led to children turning to the street and drinking alcohol,” said Ms Setumo.

She also called for the revival of the child protection committee, to address the issue of neglected children.

The workshop was also attended by various stakeholders such as religious leaders, representatives of non-governmental organisations, police and health departments.

Mr Emmanuel Motsemme of the Urban Rhythm Centre, which deals with empowerment of children, called for the law to be stricter on individuals who exposed children to alcohol and drugs in Lobatse.

“We spend a lot of time at our centre trying to instill good behaviour and mould these children. But when they return to their homes, they find no parents and start doing wrong things again,” he said.

Principal social welfare officer, Ms Chawatiwa Mosaunyana told parents that the Children's Act was clear that a child should be taken care of, protected and guided by both parents. 

She further said the Act espoused the right of a child to education, cautioning that neglect of these responsibilities, by parents, constituted an offence. ends