Africa-Press – Botswana. The high prevalence of crime, committed especially by the youth, paints a gloomy picture that requires the concerted efforts of parents and other key stakeholders.
First Lady Ms Kaone Boko said at a meet-and-greet with the leadership of Moshupa District on today that the growing lawlessness among the youth was worrying, hence intense efforts must be channelled towards finding lasting solutions to the problem.
Ms Boko said one of the strategies she would employ in making her own contribution to identifying the root cause of the youth’s involvement in criminal activities would be engaging in heart-to-heart conversations with youth inmates.
Identifying the cause(s) she said, would help guide the formulation of appropriate interventions with lasting outcomes.
Ms Boko also called on families to revisit their parenting strategies, saying though children at times adopted wayward behaviour despite parents’ best efforts to raise them into responsible members of society, some parents were neglecting their responsibility to properly guide their children.
She said given the ever-increasing rate at which young people committed varying crimes, it was important more than ever that parents and guardians remained resolute in their responsibility to shape the characters of their children.
Kgosi Oscar Mosielele of Moshupa had earlier when welcoming the First Lady raised concern about the growing lawlessness among the youth.
Partly attributing the problem to poor parenting, he said some parents were no longer concerned that their children’s behaviour was a complete deviation from their own.
“A lot of us parents are failing our children in the way we perform our parenting roles. If you look at your child or children, do you see a reflection of yourself in them?” he quizzed as he called for introspection in parents and guardians.
Kgosi Mosielele said the visit by Ms Boko, particularly to Moshupa Boys Prison had sparked in them a ray of hope that a lasting solution to offending especially by young people would someday soon be found.
He thus urged the people of Moshupa, and by extension Batswana, to rally behind the First Lady as she endeavoured to help reshape the future of Botswana’s young people.
As part of her engagements in Moshupa, Ms Boko visited the Moshupa Boys Prison where she addressed inmates and later engaged in a private meeting with inmates incarcerated for offences relating to Gender-Based Violence.
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