24 Aug 2014

Assistant Minister of Local Gvernment and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso has urged poverty eradication beneficiaries to take care of their projects to ensure their sustainability.

Addressing a Kgotla meeting in Mabesekwa on Friday, August 22, Ms Tshireletso said the government found it imperative to come up with initiatives aimed at improving the livelihoods of the people, irrespective of their location so that every Motswana can enjoy the benefits of the economy.

Ms Tshireletso noted that there were some people who after receiving poverty eradication packages opt to keep such packages under wraps and continued to classify themselves as needy people.

She said it was bad to do so because such beneficiaries would have denied others the opportunity of getting assistance from government initiatives.

The government, she said, could not afford to provide for everybody hence it came up with projects which Batswana should take advantage of to create employment for themselves as well as others. This, she added would in turn help in developing those places that were far away from services.

Furthermore, Ms Tshireletso lamented that there had been concerns regarding marketing places for beneficiaries’ products, adding that they had arranged with different departments and councils to have market days on monthly or fortnightly basis to assist beneficiaries to display their products for sale to the public.

This, the assistant minister said would give the beneficiaries an opportunity to market and meet with their counterparts in business and even create partnerships where possible.

In response to a question from the village development committee deputy chairperson, Mr Lesego Nkoborwane, who wanted clarification on who qualifies to be a beneficiary under the  Rural Area Development Programmes (RADP) in a settlement classified under Remote Area Community (RAC),  Ms Tshireletso said despite being in a village classified as RAC, every beneficiares were assessed to see if they qualified.

Earlier, Mr Nkoborwane complained to the assistant minister that for almost five years they had been requesting for solar panels to be installed at their health post so that patients could be assisted at night but nothing positive was forthcoming.

This, he said, had been the case despite that the authorities were aware that the road connecting them to Tonota was in a bad state, adding that they also did not have an ambulance. ENDS