18 May 2016

Francistown City Council (FCC) principal public relations officer, Mr Joseph Wasubera has said the city’s poverty eradication task team is working around the clock to eliminate the backlog in the programme.

Responding to a BOPA questionnaire, Mr Wasubera indicated that the Social and Community Development (S&CD) and the Department of Forestry and Range Resources (DFRR) have so far managed to eliminate the backlog by the end of the last financial year.

He said the Department of Gender Affairs is in the process of eliminating the backlog and expecting to complete by the end of June.

The PRO however indicated that the Departments of Crop Production and that of Animal Production are still waiting funding to complete the backlog.

Mr Wasubera said although the Department of Crop Production has trained all 92 approved beneficiaries, a total of 53 are waiting funding.

He further indicated that all the 53 beneficiaries are for backyard gardens, noting that should funding for the projects be approved, the beneficiaries will be allocated gardens at a demarcated area in Donga as well as other areas and the funding will cater for water availability and soil tests at the area.

Mr Wasubera said under the Department of Animal Production, nine beneficiaries out of the trained 13 will be funded should funds be available.

A total of 530 beneficiaries were assisted under the S&CD and the DFRR during the backlog elimination exercise and at the completion of the process, the total backlog of 851 in the city will be dealt away with.

Mr Wasubera said the task team has established a partnership with Botswana Homeless People’s Federation to mentor and coach the funded beneficiaries and have so far coached 316 in business and management skills.

He said all the 20 primary schools in Francistown are supplied with bread from the 38 poverty eradication bakery beneficiaries and so far the council has paid a total of P348 703 for the supply of bread.

Furthermore, he indicated that beneficiaries under DFRR have managed to generate a total of P16 880 from their projects.

Mr Wasubera explained that apart from the beneficiaries, the poverty eradication projects have created employment for 14 people in bakery and food catering.

He said while the programme is doing well, the backyard gardens are challenged by pest infestation, theft of equipment and crops, especially in the gardens along the river banks.

Also, he said some beneficiaries who want to use space on the river bank are challenged as their packages do not include water pump generators.

He indicated the programme is also hampered by lack of operational space that in some instances led to backlog in assisting the beneficiaries.

Mr Wasubera lamented one of the challenges in the programme is the lack of commitment by some of the beneficiaries that he said resulted in the abandonment of the projects and their collapse. ENDS