29 Jul 2014

Three hundred and fifteen people have taken up alternative poverty eradication packages since their introduction to the Kgatleng District last year, according to Ms Baledzi Makubati, the chief social welfare and community development officer.

In a recent interview, Ms Makubati said of the 315 beneficiaries, 173 were in Kgatleng West while 142 were in Kgatleng East. The packages included sewing, laundry, bakery and kiosk.

“The projects are operational but at a very lower rate,” she said. “May be it is because the programme is still new in the district.”

Ms Makubati said after training, beneficiaries were given resources to start their projects and their mind set and lives dramatically changed for the better because they would have a source of income to sustain their lives.

She said however that some challenges hindered the growth and success of the alternative packages projects and caused them to function at less than full capacity. One of the challenges was lack of business premises. Another challenge is failure of the beneficiaries to work as a team.

As a result, the Department of Social and Community Development was working hard to instil a sense of teamwork among beneficiaries of the poverty eradication programme.

Some of the projects face competition from the existing businesses. 

However, the Kgatleng District Council supports small businesses through the local procurement initiative.

Ms Makubati said her department was planning to train the beneficiaries to manage and grow their businesses, on health issues such as personal hygiene and against corruption so that they could be competitive.

She advised Batswana to exploit other citizen empowerment programmes to create job opportunities as another way of poverty eradication. ENDS