17 Apr 2020

Mahalapye Sub-district Council chairperson, Mr Merementsi Banthasetse says about 1 208 households in the sub-district have been assessed by social workers under the ongoing COVID-19 food relief programme.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Banthasetse said he dispersed a team of 60 social workers last week to assess all households in all villages in the sub-district.

Of the 60 social workers, he said 20 were employed recently being two retired social workers and 18 graduates. Additionally, he said the sub-district council had also received 69 applications adding that 37 possessed the relevant qualifications.

However, Mr Banthasetse said they had not yet engaged those 37, adding that they would only engage more social workers if funds permitted and if additional assistance was required.

“We have deployed 15 vehicles to try and speed up the exercise.

Our target is to complete assessing all households in all our villages by the end of April before we start assessing at the fields and cattle posts," he said.

He said social workers had been instructed that when they came across families in dire need of food relief, they should provide them with food packages immediately.

“The whole idea is to ensure that people do not starve while staying at home, as they are compelled to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19. We want to avoid unnecessary movements to grocery shops,” he said.

“We also want to ensure that people are not pushed back to the streets by hunger to try and hustle for some income to buy food,” he added. Ends