23 Aug 2017

Some youth who have been funded through the Youth Development Fund (YDF) fail to honour their contractual obligations of repaying their loan part.

Speaking during the on-going Mahalapye Sub-council meeting, the sub-council chairperson, Mr Tassman Cebani said the total arrears for YDF loan repayment stood at P8 481 103 and only a total of P779 672 has been collected.

He said procurement on youth businesses stood at 59 per cent over a target of 20 per cent.

Mr Cebani also said other challenges encountered were acute shortage of transport and human resources, non-commitment of project owners, poor record keeping and non-submission of progress reports.

He said to address such issues, the department planned to train youth and also make follow ups to remind them of their obligation in their contract.

Therefore, he appealed to councillors and community leadership to assist in mobilising and encouraging youth to honour their contracts, adding that reminder letters were continuously written to the concerned youths.

Mr Cebani also said the office planned to continue engaging various stakeholders in an effort to recover government revenue from youth by making them pay for their loan components.

On youth empowerment sports and culture, Mr Cebani explained that the Ministry had introduced constituency athletics competitions for those 30 years old and below in pocession of valid identity cards, adding that no foreign nationals were permitted to partake.

On socio-economic development, he noted that the sub-district had a mandate of assisting the under privileged members of the society with welfare services to improve their livelihoods.

The beneficiaries were those who were categorised as permanent destitute persons, temporary destitute persons, needy students, children, community based clients and orphans.

However, he noted that there was a decrease of 330 in the number of  beneficiaries across all categories as compared to the last figures of 6 499 presented to the last session of council.

He said the decrease was due to deaths, termination of beneficiaries upon improved health and economic status.

The council chairperson noted that in an effort to assist vulnerable children to access tertiary education, a total of 79 orphans and needy students have been facilitated to further their education.

On the Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) programme, Mr Cebani explained that since April 2017 to date 61 people were assisted house improvement in the sub-district.

However, he explained that since SHAA inception, there had been an unprecedented number of beneficiaries who have been defaulting on their loan repayments.

Mr Cebani said 51 beneficiaries were on arrears amounting to P316 589, but only total amount of P12 273 had been recorded.

He therefore encouraged councillors to encourage those who default to service their loans as agreed so that other members of the community could benefit. ENDS