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From near-homeless drug addict to AP Youth president

 Walebowa  Walebowa
Walebowa

Thapelo Walebowa spent nearly a decade on the streets as a drug addict but despite this, he has managed to become the new Alliance for Progressives (AP) youth president following the dissolution of the previous youth league.

“I hit rock bottom in 2017 addicted to marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, antidepressants (occasionally), cigarettes and lean. I started doing drugs when I was 12 years old while doing Form 1 at Rainbow High School.

The same year I also experimented with alcohol, sharing a six-pack of Hansa beer with two friends just to test the waters,” he said. “Fast forward I get into the University of Botswana (UB) and was on the straight and narrow. I gave my studies more attention since I was a bit more mature at this stage, but still have not changed my habits. I made it through the first year.

The first semester of my second year I failed and discontinued (FD), then got reinstated the following year to try again still under a government scholarship, which came as a lump sum three months into the semester and I thought to myself ‘weed and liquor are kind of boring, I’ve been doing it forever, let me try cocaine’. I got another FD and two consecutive FDs result in fail and exclude (FE),” he highlighted.

His addiction had taken full control of his life and was struggling with making ends meet by selling clothes and jewellery. “A new drug called cat (a type of synthetic cocaine) got introduced into the city and I was in the mix doing lines every time I drank, and I would never black out like before and would party till the early hours, sometimes two days straight,” he explained.

Battling addiction for years, Walebowa found solace in church and he managed to reclaim his life from the clutches of substance addiction. “On June 25, 2017, I decided to visit a church called Winners Chapel in Block 6 behind Pula Spar, nobody had invited me. I just woke up that Sunday and felt compelled to go there. I arrived towards the end of the service and got to hear a bit of the preaching. When the pastor invited everyone who wanted to give their life to Jesus Christ to come forward so he prays for us I did, he prayed for us and we repeated the salvation prayer. After that, I went home and began reading the Bible more often which I had done before but this time I was seeing it in a different light. I call it a history with a mystery.” He further disclosed that as his life transformed so did his perspective on social issues.

Driven by his struggles, Walebowa discovered a newfound passion for public service. His struggles had instilled in him an acute understanding of the challenges faced by those marginalised in society. As he rebuilt his shattered existence, he went back to UB to complete his studies. In 2019, he joined the UB Progressives (from the AP) and contested elections which he lost.

“Politics to me is a room for different types of voices and AP seemed like the suitable vehicle. It was different, representing everything I wanted unlike other political parties that kept repeating the same thing,” he outlined.

Harnessing this empathy as fuel for change, he embarked on a mission to uplift others who had fallen victim to addiction to becoming a social activist sharing stories with children and secondary school students. Walebowa has since indicated that he has aspirations to contest in the general elections in the future.