Suspected Defilement Cases Worry Kgosi, MP
Onalenna Kelebeile | Monday September 18, 2017 16:09
Last week alone, the Kagiso Customary Court registered four cases in which female students were illegally kept in houses by out-of-school males aged about 24 years. Affected students were from Makhubu and Lebogang Junior Secondary Schools.
During a kgotla meeting this week, court president Mark Thipe appealed to parents and other stakeholders to assist in ending such illegal practices. “Bana ba tswalelwa mo mantlong mo re belaelang gore ba dirisiwa botlhaswa ke borre (Children are kept in houses where we suspect they are abused by men),” he said.
He said all the affected female students are below 16 years and said he engaged social workers in the area and also handed the cases to the police.
He said it was suspected that the said students were being sexually molested. In an interview after the meeting, Kgosi Thipe said what they picked from the affected students was that they were being enticed with alcohol that is then mixed with drugs. He added that these were the first cases of this nature in his area and called upon parents to monitor and control their children.
“I have formed a committee comprising of shebeen queens in the area in a bid to combat illegal drug sale, but it is a pity that one of the students who was caught illegally possessing drugs reported that he is being supplied by one of the shebeen queens,” he said. He added that he will do follow-ups with the concerned schools to check if the said students were attending school properly. Area MP, Dithapelo Keorapetse said Kgosi Thipe’s concerns were disturbing and expressed the need for all stakeholders to combat the situation together. He expressed concern that some parents made the duty of dikgosi difficult by concealing such cases until the reports sometimes come from schools after a student would have been missing for some time. “Parents must know that, that is an offence punishable by law and that they could be changed for defeating the ends of justice. Even schools must come out and report such occurrences instead of seeking to protect their images,” he added.
Meanwhile, Keorapetse also expressed worry that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that is one of the priority requirements before companies can operate has become a challenge for projects that want to set up in Selebi-Phikwe.
He said there was a need to review the Act, or alternatively the minister be empowered to exempt the exercise for purposes of speeding up processes because investors are not so patient to wait for EIA for about a year while the same can be done within a week in other countries.
He cited that the pharmaceutical company and the gas plant that are expected to set up in Selebi-Phikwe for being delayed by the EIA and feared that the aircraft manufacturing company, Brite Star may be delayed by the same arrangement up to 2019. He also appealed for assistance in lobbying for the coal-to-liquid plant that can create up to 3,000 jobs to come to Selebi-Phikwe. “Phikwe must be considered because of the ready infrastructure, roads, housing and the BCL laboratory,” he said.
The community is of the feeling that the EIA issue must be seriously addressed and that there must be a waiver on the EIA looking at the urgent need to create jobs in the town and suggested that the MP present the EIA issue as a motion in Parliament. “Selebi-Phikwe must be accorded a special dispensation when it comes to EIA,” said one Moses Serite.
The MP said he will do a follow-up to see how the process could be speeded up for the benefit of the town. He maintained that the BCL mine could have been sustained with cash instead of closing it down and said it will be much cheaper to sell it while still in operation than when its not functioning. He said the closure has had ripple effects as evidenced by the fact that some parastatals like the Botswana Power Corporation and the Water Utilities Corporation have already issued notices of retrenchments.
He added that BCL paid BPC P2 billion in the last five years and P500 million to WUC in the same period.