13 Feb 2013

Government shall continue to assess its poverty eradication programmes to ensure that they reach intended beneficiaries, Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Dr Gloria Somolekae has said.

Dr Somolekae, who was addressing North East District councillors on February 12, said it was not in doubt that government had achieved a lot in taking various developments to all corners of the country. She said this was evidenced by the presence of facilities such as clinics and schools in almost every village.

She however noted that despite such milestones, it had become apparent that the livelihoods of some people, especially in rural areas were still characterised by abject poverty.

In light of this, she informed councillors that government had seen the need to review the Rural Development Programme (RDP) with a view to enhancing it to better address all the needs of its beneficiaries.

The decision to review the programme, she stated, was informed by the realisation that in the absence of a good livelihood, those for whom developments were made would not utilise and enjoy them to the fullest.

She nevertheless applauded local authorities for having from way back spearheaded the issue of improving the livelihoods of their own people. Dr Somolekae cited as positive developments, the social safety nets such as provision of food baskets and shelter for the under-privileged.

To augment the efforts of local authorities, she said government launched the poverty eradication programme in 2010 and its main aim was to help the 29 000 Batswana who were living in abject poverty.

“Currently, 373 000 of Batswana are living in poverty and of this figure, 29 000 are living in abject poverty. The poverty eradication programme focuses on the 29 000, the ones in a truly desperate situation. We need to focus on the ones already on the margins of society,” she stated.

Because of the focus on the hardest hit, Dr Somolekae said government had decided to first give priority to backyard gardening, the reason being the need to improve family nutrition.

She said most of those affected by poverty often had nothing for survival and in most cases never knew where their next meal would come from.

Thus, she indicated, government decided such people should be assisted with backyard gardens and at the same time be enrolled in other safety nets to help them gradually break free from poverty.

Furthermore, the assistant minister noted that in an efforts to speed up the process of helping the nation’s needy, the President’s Housing Appeal was brought on board.

She said its aim was to help restore the dignity of the less privileged by affording them decent shelter.

Speaking after the assistant minister’s presentation, the North East District Council (NEDC) chairperson, Mr City Kealotswe said unemployment was not only rife, but was continuing to assume an upward trend.

Mr Kealotswe, who is also the councillor for Mapoka appealed to his colleagues to encourage residents of their wards to opt for self-employment as jobs were continually becoming hard to come by.

Ramokgwebana councillor, Ms Joyce Mahube said backyard gardening was a positive programme, agreeing with Dr Somolekae that people should desist from viewing it from the point of view of generating income only as its produce could also be used to improve family nutrition.

For his part, Tshesebe councillor Mr Moses Maloiso called for a mindset change among beneficiaries of backyard gardening.

He said they should understand that government efforts were only a starting point meant to give them some leverage upon which they could build and grow their gardens into fully-fledged businesses.

Mr Maloiso noted that time had come for beneficiaries to be open-minded and to harbour the desire to grow and be able to export their produce to other districts. ENDS