25 Jun 2018

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Thapelo Olopeng has informed Rakops populace that a sport stadium worth P5 million has been planned for their village.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Rakops recently, Minister Olopeng said land had already been identified and that the stadium would be furnished with artificial turf, inclusive of volleyball and netball courts as well as bathrooms.

Similar stadiums, he said had been budgeted for construction across the country for 10 areas and each would be allocated P5 million.

The plan, he said was to expedite construction of the stadiums to be completed before end of the year, therefore projects would not go through tendering process and would be undertaken by the community.

Olopeng noted that the projects would commence within a period of two months, Rakops stadium inclusive.

Furthermore, Minister Olopeng said unemployment amongst the youth was not only prevalent in Botswana, but was an issue across the African region.

Statistics, he said had proved that youth population had increased, citing that youth population stood at 60 per cent in the population of two million.

The use of advanced technology he said had also contributed immensely towards reduction of job vacancies in the market.

He also explained that the Youth Development Fund (YDF) in every financial year each constituency was allocated P2 million and each applicant was allocated P100 000.

Olopeng noted that if the youth could group themselves in  groups of five, they could be funded to the tune of P450 000.

He stated that the intention was to stop funding the youth as individuals and fund them as groups to promote establishment of cooperatives.

Boteti West, he said had received 133 applications for the year 2018, commending them for showing interest in the programme.

He stated that the ministry was not able to keep applications on the waiting list due to change of prizes in the market and promised to make a  proposal to cabinet to consider revising the vote allocated each constituency for YDF, citing that P2 million was insufficient.

He further said his ministry would also consider funding dry farming which he said could only be done during rainy season.

Olopeng said the ministry would also look in to absorbing interns whose contracts had elapsed so that they could continue working provided their services were still needed.

He said there were 77 officers enrolled on national service programme in Rakops and noted he had realised that there was a large number of applicants on waiting list.

The minister stated that 30 per cent of campsites businesses had been reserved for the youth.

He indicated that 83 per cent of youth projects were a successfull country wide, and only 12 per cent of them had collapsed.

He cited it was therefore unfair to use such a percentage to judge performance of youth projects.

Olopeng implored the business people and farmers to adopt the youth for mentoring purposes in business or farming.

The ministry programmes coordinator for North region, Mr Jacob Sekgoni said Boteti West constituency exceeded the vote that was allocated each constituency in a year.

Mr Sekgoni said the constituency had an officer who had the capability to assess applications in Boteti West and courier them to Letlhakane for appraisal. ENDS