30 Oct 2016

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is making a meaningful contribution in its task of rolling out key basic services to communities.

Minister Slumber Tsogwane outlined this in an interview recently.

He said his ministry had managed to make headway in terms of empowering Batswana.

He said through Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), his ministry had assisted in job creation, while also aiding the development of education.

“We are tasked with the construction of primary schools countrywide, and through the ESP, we have managed to engage in a process of eradicating the backlog of some of our projects,” Mr Tsogwane said.

He said over a three-year period, his ministry was constructing 401 classrooms, 1 280 toilets, and 486 teachers’ quarters at government primary schools throughout the country through ESP. “The first phase is underway, 122 classrooms, 456 toilets and 125 teachers’ quarters due to be completed by the end of the current financial year.

We also provide food relief services to primary schools, which greatly assists in reducing the effects of poverty on some children especially in remote areas,” Mr Tsogwane said.

 Also through the ESP, 30 customary courts are being constructed across the country. The Central District, which takes up a large landmass of Botswana and has more villages than the other districts, has 12 customary court projects being built, with all other districts also having new projects underway.

“Our ESP projects are creating about 1600 jobs, and while these are mostly temporary jobs in construction, they are assisting people to make a living.

Also, the purchase of building materials from other companies helps to boost other players in the economy,” Mr Tsogwane said.

The ministry has also assisted in empowering citizen companies by outsourcing waste management tasks such as refuse collection. Another beneficial programme has been Ipelegeng scheme, though the minister stressed that, “as opposed to job creation, Ipelegeng is temporary relief.” He also said that while the Poverty Eradication programme is administered from the Office of the President in terms of policy and oversight, his ministry has been tasked with a lot of the implementation.

“We assess potential beneficiaries on the ground, and already 109 286 people have been mobilised, 67 862 assessed and over 6 000 have been trained.

We have beneficiaries who have received packages and some have proved to be success stories,” Mr Tsogwana said. But the minister insists that while his ministry also assists some of the most vulnerable within society through social protection, their intention is to see the numbers of those on social support decline.

“We want the able bodied poor to graduate to a situation where they are either gainfully employed or are running self-sustaining businesses.

We wish to get to a point where only the elderly and the disabled are on social support,” Mr Tsogwane said. Furthermore, the minister added that through District HIV/AIDS Multi-sectoral Committees, his ministry also assists the country fight the HIV scourge.

These initiatives are part of the government’s priority areas, which include the pledges to make job creation priority number one; take Batswana out of poverty; increasing education funding; increase education funding; eliminate mother-to-child transmission and to fight corruption in all its manifestations. ENDS