03 Mar 2014

The Kweneng council secretary has urged councillors and stakeholders to manage and run poverty eradication programme strategically to achieve its mandate.

Responding to the concern raised by councillors during the Kweneng full council meeting recently, Mr Wazha Tema said for the poverty eradication programme to produce results, councillors and stakeholders have to tackle it strategically.

He said there were many poverty stricken people in Kweneng. He said instead of looking around the village and assessing people at home, the first people to start with were the closer and known beneficiaries.

Mr Tema said they should start with the Ipelegeng workers as they hired them and probably knew their situations better. He said by so doing they would be able to engage and work on both programmes simultaneously.

Therefore, he said, this would then decrease the number of Ipelegeng workers and create a space for those fit and not hard hit by poverty to join Ipelegeng. He said to his knowledge, most people who engaged in Ipelegeng were poverty stricken people who want to provide for their families.

He also said with this approach the budget money for poverty eradication programme will then be used accordingly and many Batswana will survive thus the program will produce results and many beneficiaries as it’s supposed to be.

Even the process of accessing will be easy as they will be engaged to people whom they work with and know better, Mr Tema said. He urged councillors and stakeholders to look into the strategies and maintain it.

Mr Tema further expressed his disappointment with Letlhakeng which he said had gone down pertaining to how it used to service the programme. 

He said Letlhakeng used to be the best in producing good results from the program and now it has relaxed adding that he heard the main problem is that they still have to assess people.

He further reminded councillors that the program is for all poverty stricken Batswana and all who fit the creteria should be serviced. 

Also, Mr Tema urged stakeholders to get rid of youths who want to benefit from Ipelegeng yet there are so many youth programs they can use to improve their lives.

He said he is aware that there are some youths who refuse the youth programs and stick with Ipelegeng. ENDS