Thamaga Gang Shed Off Matsetsenkane Tag

Tefo Pheage | Monday January 18, 2016 15:50

 

The name, Bana Ba Metsi comes from a special school, located in the Okavango where Matsetsenkane were rehabilitated after intervention to help the group by the government and Botswana Institute of Rehabilitation and Re-Integration of Offenders (BIRRO).

 Bana Ba Metsi school was founded by Steve Harpt, an American who had been the headmaster of Shakawe School.

When his home in Maun was broken into by a small boy who was an orphan and hungry, Harpt realised the need for these lost children to get an education and learn skills that would enable them to become productive adults. The idea of a special school, located in the bush in order to be away from the temptations and distractions of the villages, was born.

The Bana Ba Metsi School was established by the Moremogolo Trust, a group of concerned individuals, to fund projects aimed at assisting disadvantaged groups in Botswana, specifically youth at risk and AIDS orphans.

The school is targeting young people who have been expelled from or dropped out of regular classes due to behavioral problems or other socio-economic reasons.

In an interview with The Monitor, BIRRO director Mothei Sejakgomo said it is true that the group that was known as Matsetsenkane has transformed and has been renamed Bana Ba Metsi, a name for the school where the group was rehabilitated.

“It is true that they are no longer Matsetsenkane as they were known, the name Bana Ba Metsi came into being after an agreement between all the stakeholders that they be named after the school. We then liaised with the school leadership and agreed that there is no problem with naming them after the school,” he said, further urging the nation to support the group and other similar ones by all means possible.

At the school, the group was subjected to training and counselling at the hands of the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, BIRRO and school officials.

The government has promised to assist the group with business ideas and back to school  strategies for those who dropped out from school.

Matsetsenkane, and other groups such as Merubisi are known to have terrorised the Thamaga community, committing despicable and horrendous crimes, which left the nation shocked.