24 Jun 2019

Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Mr Ngaka Ngaka says the ministry has completed the review of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme and that women must get ready for the reinstatement of the programme.

The minister was speaking during a kgotla meeting at Bokspits on June 21. He said the programme was halted in 2017 pending review. 

The review, he said, showed that most women did not use it accordingly, adding that the legal instrument used to run the programme was not tight enough hence the review. 

He told the kgotla meeting that to address the challenges, the ministry undertook a comprehensive assessment to review the programme, adding that it would be tabled before cabinet and brought back to the people. 

He encouraged them to get ready for the programme and break the poverty cycle. 

He noted that the Kgalagadi region was doing well in small-stock farming, and that government would develop the programme to develop such projects. 

He said women’s economic empowerment programme projects on small-stock were doing well compared to other projects. On other matters, Minister Ngaka shared the mandate of his ministry such as dual citizenship, citizenship, Omang, immigration, border posts and women abuse.

Kgalagadi District Council chairperson, Mr Meleko Thumpe said he had noticed that in rural areas people had a problem with forming groups which were required by the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme. 

He said for the funds to be used accountably and for progress to show in such projects, groups were ideal. He encouraged people to form groups and prepare for the programme.

Kgalagadi south senior gender officer, Ms Tebogo Keakantse said the Gender Affairs office would soon be opened in the area to facilitate the programme in Bokspits. 

She said an officer had been identified and that the department was still looking for office space and accommodation for the officer. She added that she would serve in Bokspits, Rappelpan, Vaalhoek and Struizendam (BORAVAST) catchment area.

Mr Gert Esterhuizen called for the extension of hours at border posts and for the Bokspits border to be commercialised to enable them to sell their small-stock in neighbouring South Africa. 

He said they had relatives in South Africa who they visited frequently hence pages in their passports got filled quickly. 

For this reason, he asked for customs officer to come up with a way that would not compel them to stamp passports every time they crossed the border to allow for their passports to last longer.

For her part, BORAVAST Village Development Committee (VDC) representative appreciated government for completing some projects such as destitute housing in the catchment area, constituency projects and the cutting of prosopis (sexanana), maintenance of schools and staff housing. 

She requested government to extend hours at commercial border posts and requested for the area to be allowed to import fruits and vegetables from South Africa as the area was closer to Bokspits when compared to Gaborone.

The VDC also wanted an update on the upgrading of the immigration office, explaining that a site visit was done in 2017 but that they had not seen any new developments to date. 

Responding to issues raised, the minister said the common issue was the extension of hours at the border posts which also cropped up at Tsabong where he had promised to engage relevant officers to review the hours. 

He said the issue of commercialising the Bokspits border would be acted on as it was evident that clients encountered challenges with customs. He said the distance affected trade between people of the two countries as they had to cover long distances to complete concessions. 

“I will do something about it,” he promised.

He said the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs would rope in relevant officials to collaborate on finding solutions to matters raised by residents, as the same issues bordered on Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security and Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security. Ends