Rampa of the Word of Christ church was speaking at a march against passion killings on Saturday organised by employees of the Botswana Telecommunication Corporation, who were concerned about the ever-increasing statistics of these killings.
He asserted the root of the problem to dysfunctional families where the fathers are abusive in their homes and the children not given lessons on the issues of life. “Men need to get married in order to have homes and places where their children can be given moral values and an input into their lives. Nowadays it is not surprising that a 16 year old can be slaughtered. It all starts at home because of the dysfunctional families,” Rampa said. He lamented that to curb this problem, families must be valued, cherished and the issue of women parading the streets half naked must be addressed. He said that children on the other hand must have a passion and make it their goal to break the cycle of dysfunctional families by getting married and not having homes run only by their women.
“Men must go around with their pockets full of love to shower their wives with, instead of filling their pockets with condoms which is abuse to their partners. Condoms are medical things and why would you need them if you are not sick and if you have your personal wife,” he asked.
Rampa cautioned the youth against falling in love with strangers in the name of love and jumping into bed with the person before fully knowing whom that person really is. He said that there are three levels of marriage, which are connection, fellowship, friendship and intimacy that they teach couples during counsselling sessions for them not to marry in a hurry.
“When you see a person for the first time it is not love, but connection. The second stage should be getting to a place of fellowship and realising that you have something in common. Then comes the friendship before you become intimate,” Rampa explained. He asserted that because the youth are not taught these basics and do not understand, they tend to jump from connection to being intimate with the person before they even know them.
They wait for a female to be on heat before moving to the next one. I am sorry to say this but we must get out of things of this nature where people are always craving for sex. Love is about giving and not taking. Love is a freedom of choice. People must learn to love their spouses enough to forgive them.”
On his part, the president of the Student Representative Commi-ttee at the University of Botswana, Thabiso Olatotse said, that it is the murder scenes that stay in the parents’ minds and haunt them for the rest of their lives that is so painful. “If you attend funerals of these victims you will get to see how painful it is for a parent who is expecting a lot from their daughter only to have her graduate to her grave. It is high time that parents started having heart-to-heart conversations with their children on how to handle love relationships,” he said.
The MP for Gaborone Central, Dumelang Saleshando, MP for Selebi- Phikwe East, Nonofo Molefhi and the deputy commissioner for police Kenny Kapinga also graced the event. “This must be the beginning of a process and not just an event. We are tired of talking at event after event, we want this to be a process,” Rampa said.
