12 Jun 2024

Botswana Prisons Service Divisional Commander North, Senior Assistant Commissioner Mr Ontlametse Motshebe has urged inmates to prepare and focus on life ahead of them.

Officially launching the Christian Leadership Training for Inmates Programme themed: Spiritual transformation: An Effective Path for Reintegration in Mahalapye on Monday, he said the two-week course would aid 50 inmates in comprehending Christian leadership.

He shared that it would also equip them with requisite skills that would effect change in their lives for better.

He thus pleaded with them to seize the opportunity pointing that change started with an individual.

Assistant Commissioner Motshebe urged inmates to make use of the time in prison to re-introspect and focus on life ahead of them. He pleaded with them to familiarise themselves with government programmes they could use as a springboard that would catapult them to greater heights as rehabilitated members of the society.

Also from prisons service, Assistant Principal Officer Mr Barulaganyi Poitshego said their objective was to adhere to the United Nations standard rules for treatment of offenders.

“United Nations standards rules stipulates that prison administration and other component authorities should offer spiritual training geared towards positive reintegration into the society,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Poitshego added that their aim was not only to help participants of the programme know about God, but also to assist inmates comprehend Biblical leadership and equip them with leadership skills.

“We want to reset participants’ behaviour for a positive change and living,” he said.

Reverend Mr Kesego Tladinyane of Assemblies of God Church in Mahalapye enlightened inmates on the importance of seeking solace in God, regardless of the situation they were going through. “God does not count our sins,” he said.

He reiterated that inmates lives could change for the better given the Christian Leadership Training for Inmates Programme.

Giving a testimony, a former inmate Mr Selebogo Oagile shared how his life had turned around.

He narrated how he had his fair share of breaking the law and how he had no interest in religion, before his incarceration.

Moreover, he encouraged inmates to be visionaries and not to take prison as hardship, but a life lesson. “Prison is your graduation to the next level,” he pointed.

Mr Oagile, who was baptised in prison after a similar two-week programme, urged inmates to change perspective and walk in the right path and never see themselves as unworthy of higher positions in life. ENDS