13 Apr 2016

The Member of Parliament for Shoshong, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has implored civic leaders, village development committees and village extension teams in Shoshong to work together and eradicate poverty.

Mr Makgalemele said this when addressing them in a meeting in Shoshong recently. He explained that they could only develop their constituency if they all work together and ensure that government initiatives reach their desired beneficiaries.

Mr Makgalemele also urged them to encourage community members to take government initiatives that complement each other rather than those that compete against each other.

He said it was their duty as village leaders and committees to promote the initiatives and ensure that people broaden their business minds, adding that they should re-assess all those in the waiting lists and encourage them to opt for other initiatives as the markets were already saturated.

Mr Makgalemele said the government has adopted the cluster development concept as a strategic initiative to promote economic growth through industrial clusters.

Mr Makgalemele, who is also Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, said cluster development was one of the most effective instruments to ensure survival and growth of small, micro and medium enterprises as it enhances their business performance, adoption of appropriate technology, improvement of product quality and productivity and increase turnover and export.

He also said the government has redoubled efforts to better allocate all backlog poverty eradication projects. He urged them to engage churches to partner with the government to help curb absolute poverty in communities.

Mr Makgalemele also explained to them that tenders would be awarded soon to bridge the gap and reduce the delivery time of the DailyNews paper, and that more Batswana would be engaged to help distribute the paper to more villages that do not receive it.

He explained that a presidential task team was launched last year to lead the development of the next national vision. Furthermore, he said the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture has decided on the resuscitation of Girl Guides and Scouts movement as part of the youth behavior change programme.

He appealed to village leaders and all committees to stand up and ensure that they support the initiatives because youth behaviour was worrisome hence poor examination results, adding that it was the duty of them to stand up and work with teachers to see how these could be implemented.

Under the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, he noted that there were ongoing discussions on the establishment of a rural fire services to deal with effective and efficient management of wild fires in the country.

Mr Makgalemele noted that 11 specialised vehicles have been purchased to assist in the fire outbreaks, and that they would be distributed across the country. ENDS