Africa-Press – Botswana. Retired prison officers have been encouraged to use their experience to assist the Botswana Prisons Service in its efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-offenders into society upon their release from prisons.
Minister of Defence and Security, Mr Kagiso Mmusi said this when giving a keynote address at the official launch of Retired Prisons Officers Association in Mahalapye on Tuesday.
He commended the retired officers for their service over the years, saying they had laid a solid foundation for the institution.
He urged them to continue with that spirit even in their retirement and continue to motivate and nurture those they left behind.
Mr Mmusi said his wish was to see the retired officers engaging in community outreach programmes, stating that they must use their wisdom and experience to assist the traditional leadership in their areas and government to fight social ills such as gender-based violence, the rampant drug and substance abuse, lawlessness as well as encourage moral uprightness.
He pointed out that the knowledge and experience they possessed in dealing with offenders should benefit their communities.
Mr Mmusi stated that retirement could be boring, at times coupled with loneliness, more so that they spent most of their years of life away from their communities due to work, thus lost touch with them.
He said coming together under their new association would bring a sense of belonging.
He encouraged the members to keep up their objective of providing support and showing companionship and the spirit of Botho and unity at all times, through visiting sick members and where possible offering them assistance, paying respect to families of fallen members or their immediate families while offering support and assistance to the bereaved.
“I am confident that since the association was born from a genuine need, it will grow and thrive and live up to its ideals as enunciated in its constitution.
I also hope you will continue to recruit and induct new members so that the association grows and is also a mix of the new and old members.
This will make you a genuine voice of the retired prison officers” he said.
Mr Mmusi encouraged retired officers to continue advancing the interests of the association knowing that it was born out of the desire to see retired members of the prisons service living comfortably in their retirement as well as playing an advisory role to the service and government considering the experience they acquired during their service.
Deputy chairperson of the association, Ms Elizabeth Masire highlighted that the idea came to fruition around 2013 and their constitution was approved in 2016.
Ms Masire stated that membership was open to all retired prison officers, the retired support staff, as well as widows and widowers of fallen prisons officers.
She added that the major purpose was to promote and safeguard the interests of its members and improve their conditions of retirement and welfare.
She disclosed that the association aimed to volunteer and give back to different communities through mentoring and participating in community projects.
Ms Masire pointed out that retired prisons officers faced challenges such as struggling to switch off from work mode and relax, especially in early weeks of retirement.
She added that some felt depressed and isolated without the social interactions of being around previous co-workers who had been part of their lives, and it was hoped that the association would help them to re-unite and overcome some of the challenges.
For her part, Commissioner of Prisons, Ms Dinah Marathe expressed gratitude to the retired prisons officers for their patience and hard work that led them to setting up the association.
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