09 Apr 2015

Where did we go wrong? This is a question on every Motswana’s lips whenever conversations revolve around the nation’s moral fiber. Certainly something is wrong given recent incidents that left the nation shell shocked and soul searching.

Talk of the wayward behavior of some Thamaga youth, Merubisi, who went on the rampage harassing villagers and ending up killing a 65-year old woman or the infamous Modipane pornographic video that went viral on social media. All these have left Batswana reeling in a soul searching mode.

To that, Kgosi Oscar Mosielele of Bakgtla-ba-ga-Mmanaana in Moshupa sees this decay in social values as a reflection of weak disciplinary structures at family level.

There is total departure from the foundations that  the country's founding president, Sir Seretse Khama, laid, argues Kgosi Mosielele who admires the late president’s for his appreciation of culture as a vehicle for social cohesion.

An advocate for Setswana culture and values, the youthful kgosi says the shameful behavior of some Batswana behooves the nation to go back to the drawing boards to pick those cultural elements that can take the country forward.

Just what is it that needs mending to set the nation back on track? A straight talker and one who loathe mincing words, Kgosi Mosielele says poor disciplinary structures borne out of poor parenting should be the starting point.

He says children tend to emulate what they see their parents do whether good or bad hence the need for parents to set high moral standards for children to follow. He says notwithstanding numerous initiatives to stop or regulate homebrews through, the same cannot be said about bars whose regulation falls outside dikgosi’s jurisdiction.

Until such time when bogosi is given a clearly defined and much wider role in this regard, Kgosi Mosielele says little will be achieved.

“This impedes progress because common law is not accommodative of the customary law and something needs to be done and quickly to harmonize the two,” he argues. Just recently, Kgosi Mosielele had to deal with junior and secondary school students who were found in possession of an assortment of dangerous hand–made weapons.

As a leader, Kgosi Mosielele did not waste time meting out corporal punishment as a deterrent to those hell bent on engaging in similar vices. One of the nastiest incidents that irked Kgosi Mosielele occurred some three weeks back when a male student in one of the schools in Moshupa brazenly walked into the school holding a 750 ml beer bottle.

Such erosion of morals, he reckons, calls upon Batswana to draw from their rich culture to resuscitate Bojale and Bogwera to positively recharge national values. Such, he reiterates, includes making initiation schools part of the school curriculum. Bogwera and Bojale, he also maintains, can also be employed to fast-track realisation of Vision 2016.

“Other than building regiments, initiation schools help promote peace and unify the community,” says Kgosi Mosielele, adding that the essence of regiments in community developing has always been notable. ENDS