05 Jul 2016

The Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC), Mr Thapelo Olopeng says it is not true that the Rakops youth office is closed.

Mr Olopeng told Parliament on Monday that the constituency officer was transferred in December 2015 and that a replacement was appointed on March 1, 2016.

Answering a question from the MP for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe, Minister Olopeng said all the ministry’s services and programmes were offered at the Rakops constituency office and the Letlhakane Sub-district office.

He said the services offered include coordination of arts competitions, sport tournaments, Youth Development Fund, skills training as well as the National Service Programme placements among others. Minister Olopeng further said services at Letlhakane MYSC office have not been affected as efforts were continually made to improve the staffing situation at the districts to improve service delivery.

According to the Central Statistics Population and Housing Census of 2011, the population of youth aged 15-35 years in Boteti is 22 178 (10 975 males and 11 203 females) while there are six programme officers, three interns, two graduate volunteers and four Tirelo Setshaba participants (TSPs) based in Letlhakane.

In addition, he said there were two programme officers and four TSPs in Rakops who also serve the youth in Boteti. 

However, minister Olopeng said he was not aware of any study that showed depletion of youth in the area, adding that records for programme uptake showed continued growth in the number of youth accessing services.

“The MYSC office in Letlhakane is operational as currently there is a programme officer who reported for duty on March 7, 2016 while another programme officer reported for duty on May 12, 2016,” he said.

The minister said they believe that would go a long way in improving service delivery to the youth in the sub-district. 

MP Lelatisitswe had asked the minister if it was true that the Rakops youth office was closed and how it had affected services in the Letlhakane office.

He also wanted to know the population of the youth in Boteti against youth officials found in Letlhakane.

He asked if there was any study to show the depletion of the youth population in the area, and when the office would be opened and when Letlhakane officials would be resourced and increased in number. ENDS