20 Jun 2017

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration has implored beneficiaries of poverty eradication projects in Etsha 6 and Etsha 13 to take care of their projects.

Mr Thato Kwerepe, who is also Member of Parliament for Ngami, was visiting some villages in his constituency to check how the projects were doing.

Village Development Committees and officers from concerned departments were required to brief the assistant minister on the status of poverty eradication projects in their villages or areas of operation.

During the visits, it appeared that there was a delay in getting assistance by people who had registered for the poverty eradication programme. Some had registered in 2015 and to date they have not received the projects.

Mr Kwerepe was worried by this, noting that the situation made government’s efforts to relieve Batswana from abject poverty look poor.

Mr Kwerepe encouraged those given the duty to implement the programme to put more effort in their work to ensure Batswana were helped in time.

He said government introduced the poverty eradication programme to elevate the lives of Batswana, hence it was disappointing to find some aspirants had been assessed and trained as far back as 2015, but had not been assisted since then.

In Etsha 13 since 2015, 50 people have been assessed and are awaiting project allocation, while 15 are waiting to be trained.

The delay was however attributed to shortage of funds and the issue of re-assessment, which Mr Kwerepe told officers implementing the poverty eradication programme to do away with and help Batswana on time.

He said people who had been assessed and trained needed not to be part of the re-assessment process and should rather be given projects right away.

Meanwhile, principal wildlife warden in Gumare, Mr Orbit Rantlole said for projects under the Department of Wildlife and National Parks such as fishery, the delay was due to procurement of boats which took some time.

He, however, said the supplier had started delivering and that the department would soon be allocating the boats to beneficiaries.

Many beneficiaries of different poverty eradication projects complained about the piece meal delivery of required resources for respective projects, saying it delayed the operation of their businesses. BOPA