At times we do have to blame teenagers for copying the rotten behaviour of their parents, but at the same time, those who cry foul are part of the immorality bankrupt society.
These examples of immoral behaviour flow down from our representatives in government who have shamelessly acted as a bad example to our young children. Such representatives represent the idea that it is alright for a young person to openly insult elders publicly.
In our communities, we have shown our children that it is alright to disagree with our neighbours and the authorities by simply shouting and staging protest marches. So often we use violence to express our dissatisfaction and we damage infrastructure that we all desperately need.
In our homes, as couples, we express such violence by tearing each other’s character apart for absurd reasons. And in the process, the children suffer,
We then cry foul when our children imitate such behaviour they’ve learnt from parliamentarians, their parents and families at home, their local communities and the rest of society.
As the adage dictates that “charity begins at home”. Indeed we should start by straightening the crooked moral behaviour of adults by looking hard at what is happening in our homes. Children are easily influenced by how adults behave.
Adults must be able to set an exemplary example, especially in the way they relate with another adult, with their spouses, family, friends and neighbours.
As a society, we need to start building communities that can transcend the petty “crabs-in-a-bucket” mentality that makes us see each other as opponents and enemies.
Take time to read the provocative book, Capitalist Nigger by Nigerian journalist and author Chika Onyeani. He doesn’t hold back from throwing hard-hitting punches as he presents a reality check of what is happening in Africa.
Onyeani laments the “monkey-see, monkey, do” mentality we’ve become notoriously popular for as Africans.
Onyeani describes Africans as the only people in the whole world who spend money we do not have and to buy things we do not need to impress people we don’t know.
Although provocative and bordering on self-loathing and self-disrespect, the author allows the reader the opportunity for introspection.
Perhaps it is during these times of uncertainty that as communities and families we need to sit back and take a serious look at ourselves. Onyeani’s critical hard-hitting book and his thought-provoking narrative is a serious indictment of our society.
We need to ensure that our children do not continue to be the ones who are first in everything wrong and last in all good things. We need to stop trending on social media for all the wrong reasons, such as our teenage girls becoming unwedded mothers at 15 and our teenage boys ravaged by drugs.
We cannot continue having our young boys boasting of excellent academic qualifications when they can hardly replace a light bulb or repair a bicycle tyre puncture, let alone repair their car.
We can also no longer continue to become wandering loafers and vagabonds in our townships.
Worse still, as a society, we can no longer continue to allow our young girls to trend on social media for bullying, such as the one that led to the death of the 15-year-old schoolgirl in Limpopo.
The onus is upon all of us, parents and children alike, to understand that we need be able to create a better way of life for ourselves, our families, our friends and neighbours in a bid to build better communities and a better society.
Our main focus should be on our young people, who are the future of the county, to rather embark on a vision for a better tomorrow.
It is up to all of us to set an exemplary moral standard.
Former Gauteng Premier and BEE tycoon, Tokyo Sexwale, has introduced a new accounting format called “12 Zeroes”.
Well, no one has ever heard of this “zero” digit mathematical method and rumour now has it that education boss Angie Motshekga is contemplating introducing the new format into the country’s education system.
