29 Jul 2021

A total of 3 114 beneficiaries have graduated from the Poverty Eradication Programme since March 2020, Parliament has heard.

Answering a parliamentary question on Wednesday, Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu said since April 2020, assessment of those who might be ready to graduate had been slowed down by COVID-19 restrictions, which affected projects.

Mr Mthimkhulu added that a total of 41 075 beneficiaries had been sponsored for individual and group projects, which included the small to medium scale machinery, fishery, horticulture and Kalahari sand building block projects across the country.

Again, he said, the total value of packages that had been extended to beneficiaries was over P660 million, which was out of the P1.380 billion that had been expended on the programme.

He added that about P713 313 000 was for mobilisation, assessment, training of beneficiaries, salaries for support staff across the districts and monitoring for successful implementation.

To-date, Mr Mthimkhulu said, 29 284 projects were operational throughout the country while 2 679 had collapsed.

“Most of collapsed projects are backyard gardens, tent hire, entertainment, jumping castle, catering to some extent, and services ancillary to tourism which are amongst the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the assistant minister.

Maun West MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando, had asked the minister to state the number of beneficiaries of the Poverty Eradication Programme who had graduated out of poverty and the number of beneficiaries sponsored under the programme.

Mr Saleshando also wanted to know the value of packages extended to the beneficiaries, the number that continued to operate as well as those that had collapsed.

ENDS