26 Aug 2014

The South East District council chairperson, Mr Joseph Sorinyane says lack of commitment by beneficiaries of the Youth Development Fund (YDF) poses a lot of challenge to sustainability of the programme.


Speaking at the third session of the South East District full council in Ramotswa on August 25, Mr Sorinyane said a lot of projects funded under this programme had collapsed, something which put the programme in bad light.


He said none payment of loans by the YDF beneficiaries had been a challenge to the programme as it results in accumulated arrears. 
“This poses a threat to the sustainability of this programme as the revolving fund could now not be enable to assist other deserving members of the community to further benefit from the programme,” he said.


He said the council needs to devise strategies to encourage prompt and timely loan repayments to ascertain efficiency and sustainability of the programme.


However, Mr Sorinyane also said an initiative to recoup loans from youth involved summoning defaulters to the district economic development committee to explain reasons for failure to service the loan.
 He said this initiative was set to encourage seriousness in youth as well as assisting in ensuring sustainability of projects.


Nevertheless, Mr Sorinyane said the YDF programme had been beneficial in reducing the unemployment rate of youths in the district. 
He said 166 youth had been funded under this programme and the current employment stands at 249 from 2009 to date.


For his part, the council candidate for Otse South ward, Mr Mosenki Mpuang criticised the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture for having funded only 166 youth in the entire district through the YDF programme.


He said that the district ought to know the number of the youth in the entire south east district who have benefited from the programs before they can commend the ministry and the YDF programme.


Out of the 166 projects funded under YDF in the district, only 133 projects are still in operation while 34 have collapsed.Ends