Thato Molosankwe is walking 1 317.5km from Cape Town to Mahikeng in a meritorious act of getting men to take responsibility for women and child abuse.
Molosankwe led a life of debauchery, which caused him to abuse the women closest to him, including neglecting his pregnant girlfriend and stealing from his younger sister to feed his gambling addiction.
But that all changed on June 29, 2014, when his first child was born; this “miraculous” event pushing him to become a better person and a responsible man.
Molosankwe, 39, detailed lucidly to the Cape Times’ sister paper, The Star, how he almost destroyed his life by falling into what he called the painful cycle of men who father children, but leave the women to raise the child alone because of the “irresponsible” life he led.
“When my girlfriend was pregnant, I was a gambling addict - I lived my life for
gambling.
“I was not there for my son’s mother when she was pregnant,” he said.
“My gambling addiction was turning me into an emotional abuser; meaning that I would gamble my sister’s money and I would not check what was happening with my girlfriend’s pregnancy.
“I moved out of my sister’s house because I realised that I was abusing her emotionally by always gambling her money and selling her laptop and her Navigator.
“You know, as a gambler, you end up behaving like a drug addict - you end up selling anything just to satisfy your addiction.”
He added that he lived on the streets in the Johannesburg CBD, including under the infamous Faraday Bridge and the Bree Street taxi rank.
“On June 29, 2014, when I was at Bree taxi rank, I received a call that my son was born. The news changed my life immediately.
“I went to look for a job. I called someone I knew and I was called for an interview.
“On July 1, I started working.
“That is when I changed my life in order to be a better father and look after my son and be part of his life.”
It is this passion to be an excellent mentor and role model for his 3-year-old son Omogolo Moeteledipele, meaning “God is great/my son is a leader,” that inspired him to be involved in programmes that he said would teach his son to be a responsible man that should abhor women and child abuse.
Molosankwe added that he and his friends have an annual walk from Joburg to their home town of Mahikeng, called “Jozi to Maftown walk against women and child abuse,” that he decided to extend because of what he felt was the rising number of abuse cases.
“By extending this distance, it touched a lot of people that I’m walking from Cape Town to Mafikeng - that increased my following on Facebook.
“Those are the people we need to reach because many of them are in abusive relationships or are abusing women and children.
“The ultimate goal that we want to achieve is to reduce these horrible statistics.
“But this time it is different because this walk is called #FatherSonMentorshipAgainstWomenAndChildAbuse.
“We are looking at a long-term goal; meaning, fathers must groom and teach their children to respect women. And all that begins from an early age.”
Molosankwe, after beginning his journey on his own, met a companion in Worcester, Jesse le Roux, who was sleeping on the streets after running away from home due to the abuse he
suffered at the hands of his father.
Molosankwe and Le Roux, 36, struck up a relationship at a Worcester shelter “because I know street life as I have also lived there” and Jesse decided to accompany him on his journey to Mahikeng.
However, Molosankwe’s Facebook friends were sceptical about Jesse being part of the walk as they feared for Molosankwe’s safety.
“But Jesse gave me his mother’s contact details and I called his mother, spoke to her and Jesse’s sister.
“Jesse’s mother sent me a message after our conversation, where I told her what the walk was about and she said to me: ‘Please my brother, look after my son, we don’t know where he has been because he had been abused a lot by his father’.”
Molosankwe started walking on July 9 and has already covered over 600km.
They are pushing to reach Mahikeng on August 8, a day before National Women’s Day, as they will be driven to the national celebrations in the Northern Cape to be honoured by President Jacob Zuma.
Molosankwe is also doing this to raise funds to build a recreation centre in his home village of Lomanyaneng, Mahikeng, in order to give children a place of refuge after school.
To follow Molosankwe and Jesse’s journey, go to Molosankwe’s Facebook page Thataone Senganga Molosankwe.