18 Feb 2015

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development says the only delay in assessing beneficiaries who have been identified for possible assistance has been under the poverty eradication programme.

Answering a question in Parliament, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ms Botlogile Tshireletso said this has been a result of the backlog of assessments which accumulated over time and an influx of beneficiaries who registered for possible assistance when the programme was initially rolled out.

“In order to mitigate against this, councils periodically conduct mass assessments and to this effect, the Francistown City Council conducted mass assessments in February 2014, August 2014 and is currently conducting a mass assessment,” she said.

Ms Tshireletso explained that poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and therefore the Department of Social and Community Development (S&CD) is one of the key stakeholders responsible for ensuring that Batswana do not live in poverty.

Francistown West MP, Mr Ignatius Moswaane had asked if S&CD is charged with the responsibility of making sure that Batswana do not live in poverty. He also wanted to know why is it that for both community development and social safety nets council assessment are done after six months or twelve months and not within the set 30 days period thereby failing to meet the service standards of assessing clients. ENDS