Chairperson, ours is a very diverse society, thus there'll be different approaches to one and the same issue. The subject for debate this afternoon reads as follows: "The values of ubuntu botho, as it dictates our approaches to and conduct towards others who may find themselves in difficult times." It's quite a mouthful, I must say.
You will notice that I have appended "botho" to "ubuntu" in an attempt to convey a sense of a wider spectrum to adherents or practitioners of the philosophy and ethics of human behaviour: botho/ubuntu. Depending on specific circumstances, I think it is wise to append the description to such concepts in order to break the false notion of a sectional or mono- ethnical interpretation of an all-embracing concept and practice. It is no section's monopoly.
Furthermore, whilst it is good to be amenable to the dictates of ubuntu/botho in our approaches to and conduct towards others who may find themselves in difficult times, we should actually be thinking of the other side, other people who are victims of malpractice because ubuntu/botho is an all-embracing concept; it is not sectional.
The individual is as good as the collective; which collective is only as good as a chain that's dependent on the strength of each link. Botho/ubuntu is an inculcated system of belief and conduct regularising human conduct and interaction. It doesn't fall from heaven. Botho/ubuntu should also regulate and temper human behaviour thereby placing humans at a higher level than other creatures.
Given what the world is today, and we've seen part of it today, one wonders if some humans really behave better than other creatures normally regarded as subhuman. One wonders whether our modern rat race and dog-eat-dog life needs a heavy dose of what we call botho or ubuntu in all walks of life. Our conduct in general towards all people, irrespective of their cultural, linguistic or social standing should be guided by the simple dictums of the very concept of botho. To name a few of these dictums, I'd like to remind members that "Motho ke motho ka batho - umntu ngumntu ngabantu" [A person is a person because of other persons]. Motho ga a latlhwe. [You cannot jettison a person like you cast away debris.] Matlo go ?a mabapi ... [We should be each other's keepers] ... whether we like it or not.
The foregoing, amongst many others, touch on the intrinsic worth and dignity of each and every individual. The philosophy seeks to instil a sense of compassion and caring, reaching out to the less fortunate, those less endowed with power and even influence for that matter, that human beings are, as they say, "the jewel of creation." Nowhere does ubuntu or botho stipulate differentiation of compassion. [Interjections.] [Time expired.]