Addiction in the academic corridors
Baboki Kayawe | Friday March 6, 2015 14:35
Kagiso Moffat
Twenty-five-year-old Kagiso Moffat from Tonota has had opportunities – not just once, but twice – that many of his peers can only salivate at. Growing up, he relied on a food basket the Department of Social Welfare provided for his poverty-stricken mother.
This week, the University of Botswana Economics and Accounting dropout stood before a room full of astonished delegates at an addiction forum and, in a voice dripping with remorse, revealed how a life of hope had been torn asunder by an unforgiving addiction to alcohol and marijuana.
From being a driven Tonota lad whose ambition saw him garner 43 points at his Form 5 exams, excessive alcohol intake made Kagiso’s academic experience a shortlived one.
The hunger to satisfy his alcohol and marijuana addiction fed the real hunger he was brought up in. He totally forgot the pangs of poverty that characterised his making. Coming into the city bright lights for varsity, he quickly became blinded by ‘the fun and the good times’ and freedom on offer. Kagiso abandoned his friends from the village and turned to those who were equally caught up in the fast life of alcohol and ‘weed’ as marijuana is colloquially called among the youth. “I started drinking in my first year. I drank alcohol excessively and even started smoking cigarettes and marijuana,” he said.
But the worst was yet to come. Kagiso’s lifestyle caught up with him as he failed and was discontinued from his Social Sciences study programme.
His source of income also dried up as there was no more living allowance from Government. “I had a serious problem. I had no money to feed my alcohol and marijuana addictions.
“I turned to the Internet and started hunting for sugar mummies.” The young man began sourcing money from ‘cougars’ and for a while life returned to a form of stability. He re-applied to the university and was accepted, in addition to being accorded a second chance by the Department of Tertiary Education Finance.
However, the saying “once bitten, twice shy” was not part of Kagiso’s narrative as he once again blew away the precious chance by returning to the alcohol and drugs. He was ultimately expelled from UB after failing. His most recent and third attempt to secure his degree hit a snag.
While UB has offered him a place, Government has thus far rejected his request for sponsorship. “I am back in my home village now with nothing to do with my life,” he said. “I am hopeless and I have become a beggar in the streets. I have brought shame to my family. “Alcohol has really ruined my life.”
Sadly, he is back on the benevolence of the Social Welfare department, but now, his mother is critically ill, having been diagnosed with cancer.
A life full of promise, a son whose family looked to as a potential ‘winner’ is battling to retrace the steps to success, having been derailed by the allure of intoxication and ‘fun’.
Tshenolo Palai
Yet another victim of drugs and alcohol is Tshenolo Palai, whose addiction began at age 15. In fact, as a teenager, he was initiated to alcohol and a host of drugs by a few puffs and quickly found cigarette smoking exciting. This week, he spoke of how, for him, tobacco smoking proved to be the ‘gateway to alcohol and drugs’. “My whole life was consumed with marijuana,” he said. Though an exceptional student, Tshenolo failed Form 5 because his lifestyle interfered negatively with his academic career.
At that point his family did not want anything to do with him as they constantly told him that he had self-destructed. An idea to turn his addiction into a living then became implanted in his mind.
Together with like-minded friends, he started selling marijuana and its by-products such as weed cakes and the like to learners in Gaborone.
Fortunately he remembered his upbringing. Having grown up in the church, Tshenolo made a complete turn around and abandoned his wayward ways. “I came to my senses,” he said. “I realised that this is not the kind of life God wanted me to live.” Today, Tshenolo spearheads an anti-drugs initiative called Liberty Drugs Programme in the very schools he used to sell drugs. The project educates learners on the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Experts agree that the war against drugs locally can yet be won.
Experts such as Botswana Substance Abuse Support Network (BOSASNet) clinical programme manager, Kegomoditswe Manyanda, are among those in the frontline. According to the clinical psychologist, the drug and other substance abuse situation in Botswana is larger than many believe. She says drugs and alcohol abuse affects everyone, regardless of social status or educational attainment. Of particular concern is the rate at which UB students engage in drugs and substance abuse, she said.
“We receive UB students when things are not well. We receive them when lives have broken and our main role is to try to piece lives together,” she said.
Manyanda said Batswana need to talk less and act more to stem the spread of drug and substance abuse. “Drugs are an issue at UB,” she said.
“The increase in cocaine use among females is very worrisome,” she said. It is disheartening, she said that because cocaine is a drug of the rich in Botswana, young women are in fact selling themselves to get their next fix. Manyanda said more interventions and rehabilitation facilities are needed to save those enslaved by alcohol and drugs.