09 Sep 2013

Small stock bought under the poverty eradication programme must be transported by government, from the seller to the beneficiary, a government official has said.

Animal production superintendent, Mr Godfrey Mathumo however said owing to frequent shortage of transport, some beneficiaries ended up appealing to councillors for assistance. Mr Mathumo said the poverty eradication programme caters for people who are less privileged and therefore cannot be expected to source transport for themselves. 

During a Boteti sub-council session, he advised councillors to investigate cases reported to them, as some of them might be those assisted with small stock under LIMID not poverty eradication. 

Mr Mathumo said LIMID is for poor resourced farmers not destitute persons and therefore beneficiaries are not provided with transport. Mr Mathumo had also confirmed that his office had recorded cases of mortality of small stock supplied to poverty eradication beneficiaries.  

He however added that the small stock has died due a number of reasons not as a result of diseases due to lack of vaccines. Nevertheless, Mr Mathumo did not dispute the fact that delays are very common in distributing vaccines for the livestock.  

He added that currently, his office does not have a supplies officer and at times after acquiring services of a supplies officer, they discover that the livestock advisory centre had run short of vaccines furthering the delay in assisting the beneficiaries.

Mr Mathumo said investigations by field officers revealed that some of the small stock had died as a result of stress due to change of environment, while some were killed by stray dogs, crocodiles and other predators.

He said some cases of mortality were due to lack of commitment as some beneficiaries engage in temporary employment under Ipelegeng. As a result, Mr Mathumo said the livestock spend most of the time inside kraals only to be released late in the afternoon and therefore had little time to feed and water before sunset.

“We cannot stop them from getting temporary employment, but they must be committed as the whole aim of the programme is to change their lives for the better,” he said. ENDS