04 Nov 2015

Implementation and monitoring of government projects is crucial to citizen empowerment, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse, has said.

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Selokolela in Southern District, Mr Seretse said proper monitoring would enable many Batswana to benefit from government programmes

To this end, Mr Seretse urged ministries and parastatals to visit the districts to disseminate information on the various services they offered.

The minister said it was imperative for ministries to provide timely service and give feedback to customers. He said failure to give feedback was not etiquette.

On other issues, Mr Seretse explained that the economic diversification drive initiative required ministries and parastatals to purchase competitive goods and services imports produced locally.

He said they could only import when there was no supply for similar products in the country.

He reasoned that the spirit of the initiative was to diversify the economy from a consumer of goods from other nations to a competitive producer on the global index.

Thus, Mr Seretse urged Selokolela residents to form a cooperative society in order to create employment opportunities, especially for the youth in the village. He suggested they could bake bread or make school uniforms for the local school.

 Mr Seretse also acknowledged that he was aware of some incidents where some poverty eradication equipment was supplied in halves or beneficiaries being required to transport goods on their own.

He argued that it was not fair to ask a destitute beneficiary to transport goods when the office responsible was aware that they had no means to do so.

He was reacting to a resident Ms Boitumelo Gotsilewame who had complained that government had carved out good citizen empowerment initiatives but poor supervision denied Batswana the opportunity to benefit. 

Ms Gotsilewame explained that she was assisted with eight goats in 2010 instead of the 15 she was initially promised.

She said the goats did not come with imperatives like vaccines either.

Mr Seretse furthermore shared that the newly passed Security Bill was intended to protect security personnel from abuse by employers.

He said government was concerned that labour related concerns were generally on the rise in the country.

A resident Ms Renti Ntebang complained that some people who had supplied the poverty eradication programme with goats in the village had waited far too long for their dues. She said some were even threatening to claim the goats back. 

Another resident, Mr Sebetso Gaotlhobogwe had also raised concern that minor works at the local school were usually awarded to outsiders at the expense of some locals with a similar capacities.

 For his part, Kgosi Keorapetse Legabala of Selokolela confirmed that payments for poverty eradication suppliers had indeed delayed.

He also complained that a good number of residents had applied for ploughing fields at Maunyeleng but have yet to receive feedback from the land authority. Ends