17 Mar 2021

The South-East District has come up with a programme to address the challenges faced by youth businesses within its jurisdiction.

The South-East District Council chairperson, Mr Oshima Peloewetse expressed this during the virtual full council session on Monday. 

“The house will note that in every sitting we are given reports on the progress and challenges encountered through the Youth Development Fund programme,” he said.

He said the council had responded to some of the challenges by being proactive.

He said the district team had embarked on a  exercise to facilitate and augment the ministry of youth empowerment, sport and culture development in an initiative exercise called South-east Operation Batla Monana 2021. 

Councillor Peloewetse said the team had so far visited some projects in Ramotswa, Mogobane, Lobatse farms, Otse and Tlokweng.

During the visits, the district team hopes to value and assist through monitoring the projects, campaign for loan repayment and assess the impact of the programme on the livelihoods of the community among others.

Councillor Peloewetse said the initiative would also help councillors to make an informed strategic decision and relevant input in policy decisions relating to young people.

He said since funds were limited, there was a need for prudence in expenditure to ensure value for the money spent.

In addition, he said in the recognition of the importance of the youth population, which constituted sixty per cent of the overall population, it was imperative that the south-east district council during this pandemic, should ensure that resources that the government had already vested upon young people were not lost.

He said there was a need to be mindful that the Youth Development Fund was a revolving fund that needed to serve other young people.

Nonetheless, he pointed that unfortunately for the current financial year the ministry could not avail the funds to other aspiring youths as funds had been depleted due to an economic decline.

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Councillor Peloewetse said the situation was getting worse by the day, hence the council changed from its conventional mode of communication to virtual meetings. 

He said this was how the council should conduct its business henceforth as well as how communities must interact.

He warned that COVID-19 protocols must be followed at all times by all without exception and further urged councillors to continue to encouraging the constituents to protect themselves against the virus. 

“It is important to also employ new ways of serving our clientele without exposing them to the risk of contracting the virus,” he concluded. Ends