UB Students Untangle 'Moral Fibre' Issues
Maureen Odubeng | Monday March 16, 2020 16:42
The four students Kgotso Tshenyego, Legodile Mosenene, Natasha Pheto, and Gobakwe Rabakane, through the project hope to untangle issues surrounding the ‘diminishing moral fibre’ within the society.
The quartet explained to The Monitor it was moved by the complaints that the society nowadays seems to have lost its cultural moral fibre.
“You always hear elderly people saying in our day we did things this way, which they usually do when criticising the younger generation’s way of life or expressing displeasure about how young people behave,” the group’s spokesperson, Tshenyego said.
Tshenyego explained that through the National Speakers Forum, they hope to get the society talking on issues of morality, hence the theme ‘Sick Society in the Wheel of Morality’.
The forum, which targets diverse groups, seeks to interrogate why some people seem to think or conclude that ‘our moral fibre’ as society is declining, and also perhaps pose questions on whether morality has an expiration date.
Tshenyego explained that Botswana throughout history have always prided itself in the ‘Spirit of Botho’ practised by the society.
“Do we still see the ‘Spirit of Botho’ within our society today?”
The National Speakers Forum, which will be launched on May 1, 2020 at the UB Library Auditorium, will have a variety of speakers.
They include the versatile Kgomotso Tshwenyego, professional councillor and minister of the gospel, reverend Simon Molusi, Molemo wa Kgang presenster, Patrick Molokwe, motivational speaker, Ame Makoba, and one of the group members, Legodile Mosenene.
Mosenene who is a Bachelor of Education in Counselling third-year student at UB, is living with disability. He is a paraplegic and visually impaired. The young man, however, was not born with these conditions. He told The Monitor that when he got diagnosed with tuberculosis of the spine when he was doing his Form Five at Lotsane Senior Secondary School in 2011.
He explained that as a result he lost the ability to walk and see, and had to stay home for a while believing that there was nothing there for him.
“I am from a poor background and I was raised by a single parent. My mother struggled alone to take care of me and I often wondered what would become of me if my mother passed on. Going for check-ups was a big challenge as my mother did not have a car,” Mosenene explained.
“I was undergoing physiotherapy at Cheshire Foundation, and one time the director asked me what I was going to do about completing school and furthering my education. I was shocked because I didn’t know it was possible for me to do that. He told me about Molefhi Senior Secondary School and Pudulogong Rehabilitation Centre. I ended up going to Molefhi and completed my Form Five with 38 points.”
Having gone through a time when he got hopeless and thinking his life would not amount to anything, and now just a stone’s throw away from attaining his bachelors degree, Mosenene will speak on ‘Disability and Morality’.
Mosenene will amongst others address issues of silent exclusion of people living with disabilities, explaining that even though government has come up with some policies in an effort to assist people living with disabilities, there are still push factors that keep vulnerable people sidelined.
Other topics to be presented at the launch include, ‘Diversity and Morality’, ‘The Hows of Our Societies’ and ‘Religion and Morality’.