26 Oct 2016

The Presidential Inspectorate Task Team was left puzzled as to why the South East District Council could close down a poverty eradication funded business over a licence issue.

A member of the task team and former cabinet minister, Mr Jonnie Swartz said ever since their assignment, they have never come across instances where councils close business funded under poverty eradication over licences.

He said businesses under poverty eradication are often conditionally exempted until such a time that they are off the ground.

His comments followed a complaint by Ms Itumeleng Sennye who complained that they were forced to close down the business in June because the bye-law office had ordered the closure.

Other than that, she said they were charged and the council officials have advised that they will only be given a licence after paying their charge. Ms Sennye also complained that they have been grouped to form a salon and some of the partners are not business minded hence the business struggled.

For her part, the council’s chief social and economic development officer Ms Sylvia Gilika said the council facilitates poverty eradication businesses hence it puzzles why the business was closed down.

Ms Gilika said such businesses enjoy special waivers on issues such as licences until they have developed and she promised to follow up the issue.

On other issues, she said prospective beneficiaries are sometimes grouped so that their threshold becomes better and they can buy more equipment for their projects.

Ordinarily, she said a salon gets P15 000 funding which is inadequate to buy all the necessary equipment hence the need to group those interested in the project.

She said grouping allows the business to be competitive in the market, as they will have much of the needed equipment.

Earlier when welcoming the delegation, Kgosi Tsimane Mokgosi said some projects which are not performing should be discarded.

For instance, he said backyard gardening has failed in the area due to water shortage and qualifies to be discarded.

Kgosi Mokgosi said the government spends much on empowerment programmes hence there had to be value for the money spent.

He said although it is important that the government gathers public opinions on what can be done to improve lives, there has to be thorough assessment to ascertain programmes sustainability before they are implemented. ENDS