27 Sep 2015

Mabutsane Sub-district councillors have called for the LIMID programme to be run by the council.

Speaking during a consultative meeting with Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele in Mabutsane recently, Cllr Mokalare Ngomme of Sekoma argued that the move was necessary because livestock farming was the lifeblood of the district.

He said entrusting LIMID with the council would make the programme a success.

He said farmers have had to wait for long periods before they could benefit from the programme because they had to travel to Jwaneng to access services.  

“The move will help resolve issues like late payments, which is one of the many reasons that the programme is not bearing fruit in our area.

People can go as long as three months without payment. That alone discourages them to sell their livestock to the programme,” he said.

He argued that transferring the programme to the council would make for easy monitoring and evaluation.  For his part, Mr Makgalemele said the government was looking into the practicability of transferring some programmes to councils.

The assistant minister also said the government was making efforts to ensure that the programmes were successful. He urged the council leadership to come up with ideas to facilitate poverty eradication in their communities.

He informed the leadership of Mabutsane that the government would build a small stock abattoir in Kgalagadi South which would help livestock farmers to succeed. ENDS