07 Apr 2015

Letlhakeng Sub-district is facing the challenge of high demand for small stock, especially goats.

The deputy district commissioner for the sub-district, Mr George Mogome informed residents of Takatokwane during a kgotla meeting on April 1 that the demand caused delays in the procurement of small stock for beneficiaries of various government projects such as LIMID and Youth Development Funds. 

He said because of the favourable conditions for small stock farming in the area, most of the beneficiaries under the poverty eradication programme preferred goats, hence the high demand and low supply.

He said the sub-district needed around 14 000 goats, adding that the problem of scarcity of goats was exacerbated by the fact that large scale farmers from who young farmers could buy were as far as Ghanzi.

Mr Mogome said the other challenge was that goats procured from different regions would need to be quarantined for a while for observation before the actual rearing; thus he implored the residents to consider other packages under the poverty eradication programme to avoid joining the long waiting list. 

He however, promised them that the sub-district would try by all means to assist all those in the waiting list as soon as the new financial year funds were available, and that for suppliers who required small amounts of money, they would try to resort to manual payments rather than the current internet-based government paying system.

On other issues, Mr Mogome informed the residents that tractor owners who recently won tenders to de-bush the roads in the area did so through the normal government tendering systems.

He added that there was nothing wrong with tractor owners from different areas winning tenders in their area as the normal tender procedure was transparently followed. 

Mr Mogome was responding after the headman of arbitration, Mr Noki Motlhware who complained that it was unfair for the tenders to have been won by people from outside the sub-district. 

Letlhakeng Su-District chairman, Cllr Tlotlo Batlhophi advised the government to consider the provision of vaccines before procuring small stock to reduce cases of mortality, especially in stock procured from different regions.

He also implored the residents to consider grouping themselves so that it became easier for service providers to assist them.

The meeting was organized by the office of the deputy District Commissioner to inform the residents about different government services such as the procedure required to tender for doing business with government. ENDS