03 May 2016

The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ms Botlogile Tshireletso has informed the residents of Kacgae and Bere that the affirmative action policy will last only for 10 years. 

She said in a kgotla meeting that the objective of the policy is to drive empowerment policies that will finally equate the learning and living opportunities between the settlement dwellers and the mainstream society. 

She urged parents to encourage their children to take their education seriously and even go to tertiary level as they were given full support by the government by providing them with basic necessities such as full school uniforms and transport. 

She said at tertiary level they are given special entry into universities as they are accepted with lower points compared to prescribed cut off points as compared to other students in mainstream societies.

The assistant minister encouraged those who have benefited from empowerment programmes such as poverty eradication, Remote Area Development Programme (RADP) and Ipelegeng to take their projects and property seriously as the government has spent a lot of money and resources in procuring them.  

She urged the residents of the two settlements to refrain from selling the livestock they  obtained through government programmes at cheap price sometimes even with alcohol, she said the livestock was meant to uplift their livelihoods.

She said the residents of this settlements should stop bringing people from the mainstream societies to use their boreholes which were maintained by the government meant for remote area communities to use them for the livestock they acquired through RADP and other government programmes. 

She said the time had come for the government to start investigating on people who had bought livestock and land from people living in remote area communities and repossess those.

She said government officials should monitor projects in remote areas to see that the projects were progressing. 

They also should help in mind set change of people in remote areas on issues of education, health and being independent without government support.

For their part, the residents complained about their road which they said was not in a good state especially during the rainy season as it was not accessible and this had to change as  the ambulance used it to transport patients and the police to attend to policing duties in the settlement.

They said use of alcohol was too high in the settlement and they were also concerned about high numbers of stock theft in the village.

Giving vote of thanks, Ghanzi East Council Sub - council chairperson Mr Dineo Swartz encouraged the residents to take responsibility of taking care of their projects as the government had done its part by giving them what they needed. 

She encouraged them to form groups in order to benefit from government programmes and to acquire grazing land as syndicates. Ends