02 Mar 2014

The Tonota North constituency will get P2 million for the poverty eradication programme in the next financial year.

The chairperson of the cabinet sub-committee on poverty eradication, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi said 200 packages had been earmarked for beneficiaries in the constituency.   

Briefing the media at the just ended poverty eradication workshop in Jamataka, Mr Masisi, who is also the Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, said funds had to be channelled to intended beneficiaries to improve their livelihoods and restore their dignity.

The first beneficiaries, he highlighted, were those already getting food rations from the destitute programme. He said  they did not have to be assessed as the process was undertaken when they were enrolled in the food rations. “We want these people to be helped within the shortest possible time after training.

This category of people also included those living with disability,” he said. Mr Masisi noted that failures in the poverty eradication programme were minimal. He also noted that most projects which had failed were backyard gardens owing to lack of water due to shortages and high water bills.

“Some of the beneficiaries have been found not to follow their training leading to the collapse of projects while others do not look after their projects at all,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri said over 200 people living with disability have been helped through the poverty eradication programme.

However, Mr Matlhabaphiri explained that they still had a challenge that such people were not being registered and some hidden from officials. On other issues, Mr Matlhabaphiri implored the media to play a role in disseminating information on the successes of the programme.

Another member of the sub committee, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso said many countries were now following Botswana’s lead and were talking poverty eradication.

Ms Tshireletso noted that one of the challenges that they identified was that beneficiaries needed to be assisted to find markets by giving them priority in areas such as supply of uniforms and bread and vegetables in their localities.

Ms Tshireletso highlighted that district commissioners and council secretaries should be vigilant to stop schools from procuring goods from outside their areas despite the fact that poverty eradication beneficiaries could supply them.

“This practice will defeat the whole purpose of the programme if it is allowed to continue, and we implore the district leadership to lead by example in this regard,” she asserted. She also told the media that smallstock projects, catering, bakery, textile, jam making and bee keeping have proven to be successful packages.

Under such packages, she said beneficiaries succeeded because of the readily available market and were also assisted to market their products through market days in villages. Meanwhile, trade and industry assistant minister, Mr Keletso Rakhudu noted that the poverty eradication programme was easy to implement in rural areas due to availability of land.

Mr Rakhudu also said the resuscitation of cooperatives would bode well for the programme. On benchmarking exercises, he noted that they looked at India and China because they wanted to take advantage of the technological advancements in poverty eradication in those countries.

The Jamataka Poverty Eradication workshops were concluded on Saturday, March 1 after three-days of training for over 1 000 beneficiaries from five constituencies in the Central District. Beneficiaries were trained in, among others, poultry, smallstock, horticulture, bee keeping and backyard gardening. ENDS