DPM’S OFFICE TO TRACE ABANDONED KIDS’ RELATIVES

MBABANE – The Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Office wants to trace relatives of the abandoned children housed at the Mbabane Government Hospital.
DPM Themba Masuku said they had already tasked a team to take up the responsibility, as they did not believe that a person could simply fall from a tree, but had a family background.

Masuku said if they did not locate the children’s relatives it would then become their responsibility to consider how to deal with the matter.
He said his office was setting up a committee to look into the issue. According to the DPM, irresponsibility was high among the nation. Masuku mentioned that while they were looking for a permanent solution to the matter, they were also considering a short-term solution.

The DPM disclosed that the national attitude was to dump everything on government, which was a wrong mindset. “People should make it a habit to come up with solutions and work with government towards bringing answers to social ills faced by the society,” he said.
Further, he said it was not government that created the problems but the general public who chose to fall pregnant and abandon their biological children, their own blood.

Blessing

Masuku said children with or without disabilities were a blessing from God and it was the guardians’ responsibility to raise them in good health.
Meanwhile, the DPM said they did not want to encourage a throwaway society in Eswatini.

“This just means people are not interested and socially it is wrong.” Masuku said as of yesterday, he was organising a committee to look into the situation of the abandoned children housed at the hospital, as it was wrong to push them out without a solution.

He said the committee would be formed by officers from his office, the Ministry of Health and the private sector including churches and non-governmental organisations. Masuku mentioned that government was a system and those who were in the forefront in this current case were his office, Ministries of Health and Home Affairs.

Meanwhile, he said everyone who regarded themselves as religious needed to have a heart and show compassion.
General Secretary at the Council of Swaziland Churches, Reverend Zwanini Shabalala, said churches had institutions which cared for children’s requirements.
Shabalala said the Department of Social Welfare under the DPM’s Office needed to work closely with such institutions as they would not know they exist when they were quiet.

He said they were working with the institutions within the church and it was the responsibility of Social Welfare to raise awareness on the children’s issues.

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