14 Sep 2015

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has commended the Francistown poverty eradication committee for the progress it has made since December.

Speaking during a consultative meeting with the committee on Saturday (September 12), Mr Makgalemele said he realised that after his visit in December last year, in which he was unhappy with the implementation of the poverty eradication programme, a lot of progress has been made thus far.

He said government was concerned about the delays and has since set end of September as the deadline in which the backlog should have been addressed.

Mr Makgalemele who is also Shoshong MP said in order to achieve this, a decision to suspend mobilisation and assessment has since been made.

He told the committee that he was currently on a country-wide tour to ensure that all poverty eradication committees eliminate the backlog that has been in existence since 2012 when the programme was introduced.

He explained that it was not good to keep people living under abject poverty waiting to be assisted after they were mobilised and assessed.

He however, called on the committee not to focus on training and procurement alone and neglect to mentor and monitor the existing projects.

Earlier on, the City clerk, Mr Lebuile Israel told the meeting that procurement especially for projects that fall under the central government departments was a challenge and appealed to the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) to consider acting swiftly to set up a satellite office in Francistown as the office could assist in solving some issues.

He said the city poverty eradication beneficiaries who run home based laundries have a challenge of machines because they were given household machines instead of industrial ones.

The council’s principal home economics officer, Ms Mavis Moribame said as a way of eradicating the backlog, the council was training beneficiaries and at the same time procuring the equipment.

She said currently 83 beneficiaries were trained on dressmaking, catering and bakery amongst others and their equipment would be bought at a cost of over P200 000.

Francistown poverty eradication coordinator, Mr Louis Mlilo said 93 back yard garden beneficiaries would be trained and allocated plots in Donga where the area has already been cleared and fenced.

Francistown Mayor, Councillor Sylvia Muzila assured Mr Makgalemele of the commitment by committee and the councillors to ensure that those who deserved to be assisted through the poverty eradication programme were attended within reasonable time. Ends