24 Aug 2015

North East District Council (NEDC) chairperson, Ms Florah Mpetsane says employment creation is currently government’s top-most priority.

Officially opening the ongoing full council meeting recently, Ms Mpetsane indicated that government had availed several citizen empowerment initiatives, including the poverty eradication programme, LIMID and Ipelegeng, in an endeavour to create jobs for unemployed Batswana,

She said so far in her district a total of 227 beneficiaries have enrolled in the poverty eradication programme under alternative packages, and that 178 beneficiaries had been trained, given equipment and have started their projects, while 49 were awaiting technical training.

The chairperson further stated that a total of P156 580 has been disbursed to the NEDC to assist in the training of beneficiaries.

She also told the meeting that the Patayamatebele Cooperative Society had been operational with effect from July 30 this year, adding that so far three locals have been employed there.

Under LIMID, she 1 418 people in the district had so far benefitted from the programme noting that close to P4 million had been spent against an approved sum of close to P10 million.

That, she stated, translated to an implementation rate of 40 percent, a figure that she pointed out was proof that there were several challenges that needed to be resolved with immediate effect regarding the implementation of the programme in the district.

As for the Ipelegeng programme, Ms Mpetsane, who is also the councillor for Matsiloje, said the district was this financial year implementing a total of 137 projects.

She informed the councilors that 6 169 people had benefitted from the programme through monthly employment from April to July.

On a different matter, Ms Mpetsane expressed gratitude for the move by government to assist people living with disability with a monthly allowance of P300.

She said the North East district had already started conducting a mass assessment aimed at helping to identify those who are eligible to be assisted under this new initiative.

The chairperson said so far 647 people living with disability had been identified; 385 of whom had been recommended for the Disability Cash Transfer initiative. Ends