09 Aug 2016

Central District Council chairperson, Mr Peter Williams, has urged residents of Mokungwane and Matlhakola to take advantage of government’s economic empowerment programmes to diversify the economy and create employment.
Addressing kgotla meetings in Mokungwane and Matlhakola, Mr Williams informed residents that due to budgetary constraints, government was not intending to fill in vacant  posts until the economy recovered.
He said despite the economic factors affecting the country’s revenue,  government has no intentions of making retrenchments within the public service like in other countries.
He said government has initiated a couple of economic empowerment programmes such as Youth Development Fund, Women Empowerment Scheme from department of Gender affairs, Citizen Entrepreneurship agency and others to empower Batswana to start their own businesses and create employment for others.
He encouraged Batswana, particularly youth to make use of such programmes to create employment opportunities and empower themselves and other people as well as diversify the country’s economy.
He encouraged youth to take livestock production seriously as it is more profitable.
He also urged them to venture into agriculture projects saying that there is a market for them already as agricultural commodities are in high demand.
Mr Williams also informed them that Ipelegeng program is not sustainable as such should make use of economic empowerment programs to uplift their socio-economic status.
He also appealed to the youth to take responsibility of their lives and stop drinking alcohol.
He also informed Village Development Committees that they should come with better ways of making money for the committee to ease the development of the village.
He further advised them to make VDC tuck shops as he said it is an effective way of making profit.
Furthermore Mr Williams informed residents of the role of councillors, saying that councillors are responsible for developments at local level or ward level.
He said some people have a tendency to complain about their area councillors over personal issues that are totally outside councillors’ duties.ENDS