BAD MOMS
Samuel Selolwane (59) who was in court this past Monday for allegedly defiling a 13-year-old last week is one of the few that get caught abusing children in Botswana under the watch of guardians and parents.
It is alleged that Selolwane had before defiling the minor, reached an agreement with the teenager’s mother that he will give her money if she allowed him to sleep with her daughter.
The mother agreed but the plan exploded on their faces when the teenager allegedly informed the police about what had transpired. The mother and the accused were both in court on Monday and have been remanded in custody.
The sad reality is that in Botswana, cases of minors being sexually abused are usually swept under the carpet every time the abuser dangles a carrot at parents.
Irresponsible parents have found meal tickets through their daughters, they smile and sell their daughters without hesitation.
And the only time that such cases ever reach the police is if the child drops out of school due to pregnancy or a caring neighbour reports to authorities.
The police are aware of this and have expressed concern given the increasing defilement cases in the country. What makes it worse is that sometimes parents do not want to cooperate in finding justice for their children, they
look the other way even when authorities try to intervene.
This is why Chairperson of No. 14 District Crime Prevention Executive Committee, Seth Morule lashed out recently in Kanye that mothers in particular, ‘ba rata dijo.’
They have observed with great concern how men abusers are taking advantage of children under the watch of women because all that parents want is food and money.
They throw morals out of the window and allow older men to find pleasure in their little girls, not minding that they are emotionally damaging them.
Morule said the police cannot eliminate defilement if parents are encouraging it and are not reporting cases so that child molesters are put behind bars where they belong.
Speaking to this publication about the social ills in her village, Kgosi Shatani Kgakanyane of Sebina worried that parents are not doing their part in protecting children so much that even children themselves are into prostitution.
They grew up seeing and knowing that sex gives money, they sell their bodies not for their parents but for themselves too.
These, she said, were disturbing acts likely to continue with generations and throwing the future of youngsters down the drain.
In the Bobonong area, the police are also grappling with cases of mothers who do not want to disclose names of men who have sexually abused their children. Some minors have even dropped out of school.
“Yes we have a case that is ongoing in court, of a mother who willingly gave her daughter to a man, she even made the child leave school and go into an unknown place with the man for months. The child returned home pregnant,” Onneetse Gagogosha of Baines Drift Police, said.