02 Jul 2014

Mababe youth have decried lack of access to the Youth Development Fund (YDF), which has resulted in them failing to undertake development projects in their village.

They told the Parliamentary Committee of Youth, Sports and Culture consisting of the chairperson, Mr Philip Makgalemele, Mr John Toto, Mr Fidelis Molao, Mr Gilbert Mangole and Mr Bagalatia Arone in a meeting held at the village.

Mr Toto said, “there is no one who has benefited from the P2 million youth fund awarded to the Ngamiland region,” he said. He said through consultative meeting, they had realised that tailor made programmes were not good for everyone.

The YDF funds agricultural projects, which seemed good for the whole country were not suitable for Mababe because of the wild animals.

In his welcome remarks, the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairperson, Mr Mompati Barutegi said programmes intended to assist youth in the country never reached their area for reasons they did not know.

Mr Barutegi said some youth who engaged in some projects, had a stringent challenge of land availability since the Tawana Land Board had long stopped allocations in Mababe

He said as a result, some youth operated their businesses from their homes, which was not healthy for business.

Mr Barutegi said Mababe as a tourism area, with wild animals made it impossible for them to rear domestic animals, adding that government should put in place programmes suitable for such areas.

The North West District Council (NWDC) youth programme officer, Mr Moathodi Phuthego said the youth from Mababe have not applied for the YDF, adding that youth projects suitable for places like Mababe were tourism projects.
However, Mr Phuthego observed that the P100 000 available seemed less for tourism projects, since such projects required a lot of money. 

He however advised the youth interested in tourism projects to regroup and apply for funding for projects worth P450 000.

About nine youth from Mababe applied for the Botswana National Service Programme (BNSP) or Tirelo Sechaba and only four were placed, two at the kgotla, one at the clinic and one at Kgosietsile Primary School, he said.

Mr Makgalemele told rresidents that the purpose of their visit was to find out whether youth benefited from the youth programmes availed by government and forward the findings to parliament for future plans. ENDS