06 Jun 2019

Remote area communities continue to be most affected by poverty and are increasingly becoming dependent on welfare support from the state.

In an attempt to address the issue, the government introduced initiatives some of which made a big difference in the lives of such communities as some beneficiaries have so far graduated.

One such initiative is the poverty eradication programme, whose long term goal was to eradicate poverty through empowering communities to be viable agents of their own development so that they can contribute to the growth of the economy.

Other initiatives include constituency community projects (CCP), which are meant to support communities to engage in income generating projects and to create sustainable job opportunities.

Through the initiative, communities come up with projects to create employment and uplift  their constituency’s status.

Despite the initiatives, it has been reported that some community projects were struggling, while some had completely collapsed due to lack of commitment from beneficiaries, lack of market, while some projects were not forthcoming due to slow implementation by the relevant authorities.

Chanoga village in the Ngamiland district is one of the affected villages as its community projects are reportedly at a standstill.

The village was blessed with successful projects such as bakery and a horticulture project through poverty eradication programme, but now the bakery is closed while the horticulture project is reported to be slowly collapsing.

The community has never benefited from the CCP since its inception due to slow implementation of projects by relevant authorities.

They were promised construction of a guest house but to date, there is no progress.

In an interview, Kgosi Oateng Setlhodi confirmed that community projects were struggling, despite their efforts to engage the relevant authorities.

He explained that since the CCP inception, the community has never benefited as expected because of slow implementation by relevant authorities.

Initially, he said, the community wanted to upgrade one of its facilities into a guest house, but the request was rejected by the building control unit, saying it did not meet the set standards.

“We were promised construction of a new guest house but nothing is coming up.

After two years of several engagements with relevant authorities, they recently delivered some sand and concrete at the site and our main worry is slow implementation of the project as we cannot benefit again while we still have a budget,” Kgosi Setlhodi added.

He also revealed that the horticulture project, which was piloted under the Poverty Eradication Programme was not yielding positive results as expected.

The idea was to plough in one area for the benefit of the community.

The over P2 million project commenced in 2016 and harvesting was done this year, with the output  far less.

He decried poor monitoring by relevant authorities, adding that the project has not yet been officially handed over to the beneficiaries, but it was slowly collapsing, with some beneficiaries having given up.

Kgosi Setlhodi said the project was ran by 12 beneficiaries identified through the office of the social worker but it was not maturing hence the delay to officially hand it over.

He said another project which concerns the leadership was the bakery, which supplied the community and primary school with bread and was excelling when it started but has unfortunately completely collapsed.

Kgosi appreciated that the council made efforts to assist poverty eradication projects as it took a decision that some of the projects such bakeries, catering services, those in tailoring and designing should supply schools within their localities with bread and uniforms, while catering services serve council workshops, meetings and seminars.

He appealed to officials to up their game and ensure all community projects benefit the communities as intended.

He  also called for proper monitoring and supervision of projects as well as timely implementation of projects.

Kgosi Setlhodi said their expectation was to see such projects reviving the spirit of self-reliance and reducing dependency on government assistance.

Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Morwaledi Disang concurred that community projects were experiencing challenges, citing the bakery which he said has been closed temporarily as the beneficiaries had misunderstandings.

He said the social worker was working around the clock to address the issue amicably and would hopefully re-open next month.

With regard to the CCP, he said it was a disaster as the project was not taking shape and some people had started stealing material from the site.

He said the horticulture project was also not doing well but hoped that it would resurrect if the beneficiaries show commitment.

Out of 12 beneficiaries, he said only four were active and stated that efforts were being made to recruit more beneficiaries as the project needed more labour to produce expected results.ENDS