15 Dec 2015

Vice President Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has advised government departments and parastatals to purchase goods and services from poverty eradication projects to enable beneficiaries to sustain themselves.

 Mr Masisi said this during a kgotla meeting he addressed in Ralekgetho yesterday (December 15). He was reacting to a request from a beneficiary, Mr Motlhatlosi Ntesetsang.

Mr Ntesetsang, whom government assisted to do a leather project, said the poverty eradication programme had dramatically changed his life for the better, but pleaded for more support from government departments especially the social and community development office.

He pleaded with the office to purchase school shoes for needy children from him. 

Thus Mr Masisi said the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) policy encouraged competitive goods and services produced locally to be purchased locally to empower local businesses. 

Mr Masisi, who is also the Member of Parliament for Moshupa/Manyana constituency, explained that the policy was informed by the fact that some citizen empowerment projects often times collapsed due to lack of market. 

He stated that purchasing goods and services from outside the country at the expense of indigenous, but equally competitive products created employment for others. 

However, Mr Masisi expressed joy that the poverty eradication programme continued to touch many lives at Ralekgetho particularly with Agric-related projects. 

He said a boot camp would be arranged in due course for small stock farmers with a view to capacitate them to operate gainfully. 

Meanwhile, The Vice President handed over a donkey cart to the village to be used to ferry children from Ralekgetho catchment area to and from school. The cart was donated by Orange Botswana. 

He said the donation would save the children the distance they used to walk to and from school, which he said affected their studies. He therefore challenged teachers, children and parents to translate the motivation derived from the gesture into better results.

 The school has only managed a 29 per cent pass rate during the 2015 PSL examinations. 

On other issues, Mr Masisi urged residents to take advantage of the Land Administration Procedures Capacity and Systems (LAPCAS) programme to survey their plots for free.

He explained that the LAPCAS certificates had value because they could be used to source loans from banks. Ends