23 Jun 2013

Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has called on civil servants and the public to work at ensuring the success of the poverty eradication programme.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Sese recently, Mr Masisi noted that the poverty eradication projects depended on cooperation between all stakeholders.

He encouraged Sese residents to  take up projects in large numbers and to encourage each other so that they produced the intended results.

He said government’s main intention was to eradicate abject poverty and it was possible because it had been located and government was  aware of the numbers of those affected.

The minister further noted that even though the poverty eradication budget had been reduced from the initial P180 million to P150 million due to financial constraints, he advised the civil servants and the community to ensure prompt and effective use of funds for positive results.

He said even though initially the programme was tailored in such a way that every constituency would have 200 projects, government realised that there were areas where poverty was mostly concentrated and therefore more resources had to be deployed to such areas.

He said the four poverty eradication projects which were said to be in Sese was a small number for the village of its magnitude.

Therefore, he encouraged the residents to stand up and utilise available opportunities to root out abject poverty.

Furthermore, Mr Masisi called on relevant authorities in the district to call a kgotla meeting to explain the poverty eradication programme since it had been indicated that some people did not understand what it entailed.

Again, he pleaded with residents to attend the meeting in large numbers so that they did not miss out on good opportunities.

He also appealed to them to help civil servants in locating people who were severely affected by poverty so that they could get assistance.

Some residents had indicated that the poverty eradication programme was lagging behind in their village, with some saying they had long been trained for various projects but were yet to start operating.  One resident, Mr Gaboutlwelwe Khupe noted that he was among people who were willing to help government eradicate poverty through his tannery skills.

“I am interested in opening a tannery business and also teaching young people about this business but my main challenge is operational space because I have failed to acquire a business plot,” he explained.

Another resident, Mr Boitshepo Bosane said the reason why the programme was lagging behind in their village was due to poor service delivery by civil servants.

He therefore pleaded with the minister to urge government employees to up their game so that the programme could be successful.

“This side we are way behind as compared to those in other districts such as Kweneng, who have made strides in utilising this programme,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the minister also addressed civil servants in Jwaneng, where he applauded them for the good performance that recently earned some of them awards at the recent public service awards. ENDS