Motube calls for mindset change
Pini Bothoko | Monday August 14, 2023 06:00
According to the Botswana Police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Dipheko Motube if individuals could change the way they do and view things, many criminal activities such as murder, rape, defilement and robberies could be avoided.
Motube has challenged members of the public not to wait for reforms to fight crime and be the change agents they want to see in the society. He stated that most offences occur in homes where there is a third party but such people do not want to take part or acknowledge it something that calls for mindset change as a starting point.
He stated that the government has embarked on a national mindset change campaign aimed at driving transformation and fostering a collective shift in attitudes and perspectives, something that every citizen should take advantage of even towards the reduction of crime. Motube said the government recognised the crucial role of mindset in shaping individual actions and societal outcomes. He challenged the public to drastically shift their way of thinking and how they approach life to avoid being victims and perpetrators of crime.
He stated that domestic violence remains a concern and most of these occur at home in the presence of other people but they have the tendency of sweeping such cases under the carpet. “I am pleading with people to change their mindset. Some men think that when they are in a love relationship with a woman, they own them to a point of having the right to control them, assault and even kill whenever it suits them. If people could change that mindset, the so called passion killings could be a thing for the past. People should learn that even if their partners could cheat that should not give them the right to kill or abuse them. That is the mindset change I am talking about,” he said.
Motube said cases of sexual abuse of underage girls continue to spiral out of control, incidents that spiked during the lockdown period as women and children did not have anywhere to escape from their abusers, with some family members demonstrating behaviours that their close family members were not aware of. “If men could change their mindset when looking at underage girls, we could not be overwhelmed by defilement cases. Some men, when they look at a girl child, they see them as women that they can sleep with hence the need to change their mindset on how they approach life. If they can change their minds, men could be important allies in helping us fight Gender Based Violence (GBV),” Motube said.
Furthermore, Motube identified men who had come in touch with violence upon their women in their capacity as brothers, husbands or sons as potentially great crusaders for the fight against GBV. He added that women and girls live in deep fear of rapists who continue to violate them as they please as demonstrated by rape statistics. He called upon men who are mostly perpetrators to change their mindset and help curb rape cases. “Some men think that after spending the night with a woman, buying her alcohol and showering her with gifts, it gives them the right to later demand sex. Men should change their mindset and I know that doing so does not give them the right to sexually violate women.
We all need to develop an attitude of zero violence tolerance within our homes and outside,” he said. Motube further stated that petty crime and armed robbery continue to spiral out of control with some people across social media platforms blaming poverty and unemployment. He said being unemployed or faced with poverty is not a guarantee to commit crime hence calling for mindset change. “Some people rob people and when interrogated by the police they claim to have been pushed by hunger. One’s mind should not direct them to committing crime but it should be an encouragement for them to think outside the box and come up with ways to better their lives.
People should know that crime is not a solution, it worsens the situation as such people should change how they approach life and their decision making,” he said. The Assistant Commissioner further gave an example of people who could go to an extent of refusing to accept DNA results just because they had ssought a traditional doctor’s opinion on the matter.
He called on people to stop living in the past and accept change as it plays a significant role in winning. 'Science cannot lie, our organisation has transformed over the years with the help of technology. We have introduced scientific expertise to solve cases like murder, rape and other violent crimes hence calling on the public to accept these changes,” Motube said.