Youths dump Tirelo Sechaba for piece-jobs

Gothataone Moeng | Friday June 20, 2014 13:00

Briefing the traditional leaders on the programme, acting Deputy Youth, Sports and Culture permanent secretary, Bethsheba Mbongwe, said some participants had already exited the programme, some of them without notice, for programmes such as Ipelegeng.

“Participants exit the programme at any given time with or without notice, for various reasons such as opting to work for shorter hours as per the Ipelegeng programme or opting for short-term casual jobs such as Independent Electoral Commission registration work,” she said.

Mbongwe said this was one of the challenges that the Ministry has encountered since the re-introduction of the Tirelo Setshaba programme. Other challenges include the late payment of allowances due to logistics of registering and opening bank accounts for the participants.  She however reassured dikgosi that the challenge would be resolved by the end of June for the participants currently in the programme. All April allowances, which had been delayed, were paid between May 6 and 17, she said,

The programme is expected to cost P178 million in its first year, including costs for allowances for its, 15,000 participants. Participants are entitled to a monthly allowance of P700, with P500 credited to their account and P200 reserved for when they exit the programme.

The participants have been distributed across the 57 constituencies, with each constituency getting at least 263 people. Some of the participants have been placed in various dikgotla, with some as local registration officers to assist with tasks such as the registering of applications for Omang cards, births and death certificates.

Meanwhile Kgosi Phokontsi Seeletso of Tonota Region said the TS participants who have been placed as registration officers in the dikgotla in his region are thus far idling as no one supervises them.