07 Mar 2019

District poverty eradication coordinator for Selebi Phikwe, Ms Lesego Chipandwe, says the poverty eradication exit strategy will ensure that more beneficiaries enrol in the programme. 

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Ikageleng ward on March 6, Ms Chipandwe said the new applications for poverty eradication were still closed until further notice, adding that her office was still grappling with packaging beneficiaries who were partially packaged.

In addition, she said there was still an overwhelming number of pending applications.

She said government had observed that there had been a minimal graduation by those packaged from the programme hence development of an exit strategy to facilitate graduation of those that were successful.

Since inception of the programme in 2011, Ms Chipandwe said a total of 553 people in Selebi Phikwe had benefited and only seven had graduated from the programme.

She said of the 553 projects funded, only 285 were operational, 202 projects were non-operation whilst 18 failed.

Furthermore, she said 50 projects were  transferred to other places due to the closure of the BCL Mine which saw many people relocating to other places for greener pastures.

Ms Chipandwe urged Selebi Phikwe residents to work closely with implementing government departments to grow their business projects, adding that Phikwe has only 24 success stories.

She also commended People Living with Disability who benefited from this programme saying that their projects are doing well.

She further informed residents that it was observed that the programme had loopholes making it difficult for beneficiaries to grow their businesses.

She said it was observed that many beneficiaries benefited from similar packages making it difficult for them to sell their produce.

To ensure that businesses were successful and sustainable, government came up with Value Chains tool for all beneficiary packages with the aim to increase excelling business whilst reducing the number of failing projects.

The document, she said also presented diversity of opportunities for uptake by the private sector thereby completing the value chain for some of the key poverty eradication projects.

Residents of Ikageleng ward commended government for coming up with the new tools to improve the programme. Some residents alleged that they had long applied for package but had not seen any response to date. ENDS