Batshu Engages Churches To Address Moral Decay
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday November 6, 2017 12:26
The Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs Edwin Batshu told Ntlo ya Dikgosi on Friday that he met church umbrella organisations, such as Botswana Council of Churches (BCC), Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana (EFB) and Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC), to address the challenges of unprecedented levels of moral decay and loss of family values.
“This is done in line with the implementations produced by the committee that was led by Kgosi Puso Gaborone,” Batshu said. Batshu was answering a question in which Kgosi Thabo Masunga wanted the Minister to explain what his Ministry is doing to empower the voice of the Christian church in Botswana to face the challenges of unprecedented levels of moral decay and loss of family values.
He continued; “we agreed that to build capacity, the church needs to appoint well trained marriage officers to do effective pre-marital counselling, and to guard against marriages of convenience”.
The Minister said they should effectively train their leaders so that governance structures in the church are solid and effective.
He said they have discussed the need for them to deploy chaplains in the different institutions to support morality from various angles.
The Minister said they had also considered the issue of possible review of the Children’s Act to nurture moral uprightness from an early age.
He said he has guided the societies to come up with working fora where they can continuously discuss emerging issues affecting social and moral values in the country.
“I have engaged with other religious societies (churches) in different fora where the emphasis was the need to drive our nation in line with the Vision 2036, which commits that: ‘faith is the foundation upon which society builds its moral and ethical standards for social development and cohesion’,” he said.