12 Jun 2016

Government has decided to reform implementation of the Poverty Eradication Programme.

The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale, said this when addressing a kgotla meeting  in Ramatlabama on Thursday.

He said funding of the poverty eradication projects had been transferred from various ministries and departments to district commissioners.

He said the training had also been transferred from being carried out by such ministries adding that they would now be done by various consultants.

This he said, came as a resolution after the realisation that ministries were taking too long to fund  poverty eradication projects even after the beneficiaries were trained and ready to start their projects.

He said he was hopeful that funding from the district commissioner’s offices will not delay projects start up hoping that a lot of beneficiaries will not take long to start up their projects after being trained.

He also indicated that social workers have been exempted from assessing poverty eradication beneficiaries after a realisation that they were overwhelmed with a lot of responsibilities.

He said the very same fresh graduates that have been employed under Poverty Eradication Programme will be assessing the programme beneficiaries.

This, he said was all for the benefit of the poverty eradication beneficiaries to bear the fruits of their labour and for their projects to raise their lives from abject poverty.

Mr Molale said, he was aware that new developments and changes do come with challenges, and therefore implored all those who come across challenges in this twist and changes to inform relevant authorities such as village development committees, (VDC), the village extension team (VET), the councillors and district commissioners on the challenges that they are facing for them to be assisted accordingly.

These organisations, he said were the basic units of governance that needed to be heeded to.

Minister Molale also implored all relevant stakeholders who administer government programmes and services to the communities to work collaboratively for the success of these programmes.

He also encouraged the community to take up these government projects as they are geared towards eradicating poverty sand uplifting people’s lives.

He also called on the community to work collaboratively with public officers for the benefit of government programmes to be implemented fully and to the latter.

Goodhope-Mabule MP, Kgosi Lotlaamoreng II thanked Mr Molale for making it to his constituency and requested more cabinet ministers to make it a habit to visit the communities to get first hand information on people’s challenges.

Kgosi Lotlaamoreng requested for extension of hours of service at the Ramatlabama border  considering that the border post was very busy.c

He also called on relevant departments to improve the Botswana Television and Radio Botswana signals in the area. ENDS