23 Mar 2015

Palapye Administrative Authority leadership has raised concern over slow progress of Ipelegeng and poverty eradication projects.

Speaking during a special meeting recently, deputy district commissioner for Palapye, Ms Veronica Rabakane, said Palapye had been ranked the lowest sub-district in the implementation of these projects in the whole Central District.

She said Palapye for instance had a backlog of Ipelegeng projects dating as far back as 2011, adding that this was a cause for concern and needed to be addressed. She said departments executing poverty eradication projects were also not doing well on the implementation and monitoring of the projects.

These departments are Gender Affairs, Animal Production, Crop Production and Social and Community Development. She said more needed to be done to enroll as many beneficiaries as they could as well as increase the number of success stories.

Ipelegeng coordinator Mr Patrick Ratsima said his office had incurred many challenges that contributed to delay in completing projects on time and within budget. He said procurement of material was a challenge as the council had to use running tenders of which the suppliers are located as far as Francistown and Gaborone.

He said when suppliers fail to deliver material as required, his office is forced to make follow ups through telephone because of long distance which sometimes does not bear any fruits. He also decried shortage of tools saying that it also contributes to delay in starting or completing projects on time.

Procurement of small stock under poverty eradication, has also proved to be a challenge for agriculture officials. Animal Production official Mr Phibion Mannathoko said because of this problem, beneficiaries are encouraged to choose other packages such as Tswana chickens.

He said farmers are reluctant to sell their stock to the ministry even though prices have been increased from P500 to P700.

Regarding backyard gardening, department of crops official Mr Alexander Letebele said Water utilities Corporation is taking longer to connect water in beneficiaries’ homesteads.

He said some back yard gardening projects have collapsed as a result of water disconnection by WUC due to failure to pay water bills by beneficiaries.

Regarding bee keeping, he said the department is having challenges with finding bee colonies, as such it takes longer for beneficiaries to benefit from this package. ENDS