29 Jul 2013

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture has been experiencing some challenges in the payment of constituency tournaments.

Responding to concerns raised by some young people during a kgotla meeting at Kajaja in the Okavango Sub-district, the deputy permanent secretary, Mr Jefferson Siamisang acknowledged that circle 13 of the tournaments had not been paid and he apologised for the delay.

The youth had complained about the delay in payments, lack of transport for winning teams at regional level and low uptake of youth programmes due to long distance to access the services.

He said the delay was caused by the new process of payment through posts offices noting that officers responsible were not used to the process. He said they had rectified the situation and payments would be made in a week’s time. “We were not happy with the situation and we will now monitor and ensure that everything is done on time,” he added.

Mr Siamisang said the ministry wanted to ensure that the constituency tournament initiative produced the expected result of  improving the lives of young people. He said in other villages, youths were step ahead as they utilised the money they won from the tournament to venture into income generating projects.

The deputy permanent secretary cited as an example a team in Molapowabojang, which he said had bought a combi to generate income. He said another team in Ngamiland had sponsored three students for diploma courses. Mr Siamisang said the initiative was meant to change the lives of the youths for the better.

Kajaja youth informed Mr Siamisang that they had intended to utilise the prize  money on income generating activities but their efforts were frustrated by the delay in payments.

They said the constituency tournament, which was aimed at taking youths from the streets and fighting social ills such as alcohol abuse was not bearing positive results.

They said the money they won was used to transport teams and requested the ministry to look into the issue with a view to assist them. Meanwhile, Mr Siamisang said at the moment the ministry could not assist with transport due to financial constraints.

He also raised a concern about the low uptake of youth empowerment programmes. He said since the Youth Development Fund started, the youth office had assisted 63 applicants in the Okavango Sub-district.

In addition, for 2013/14, he said they had received one application from Kajaja for horticulture project. He encouraged the youth to take advantage of the initiatives aimed at empowering and developing them.

For his part the area MP, Mr Bagalatia Arone said efforts were being made to sensitise and encourage the youth to fully utilise the programmes. He said he conducted kgotla meetings to bring them together and explain about the programs and how they could access them. BOPA