Youth fund ineffective � Segokgo

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday December 16, 2014 20:26

In his state of the district address, Segokgo said in the South East, 166 youth have been funded under this programme but only 96 projects are operational.

“Honorable house, non-commitment by beneficiaries on the Youth Development Fund continues to be a challenge hence quite a number of projects funded under this program have collapsed and the ambiguity that I outlined about the poor coordination system by the Central Government to harness procurement laws for the benefit of young people,” the youth leader said yesterday.

Segokgo said the challenges include high rentals and non- repayment of loans by beneficiaries. He said the total loan arrears stand at P527, 718.14 for the whole district.  “This therefore calls for more concerted efforts by all concerned stakeholders to reverse this phenomenon hence achieving objectives of this programme as we go forward.”

On issues of roads and land servicing, Segokgo said drainage of storm water remains a challenge in the district, and that the council is trying to attend problematic areas with limited resources.

“A tender for the supply and delivery of Tractor Loader with Backhoe has been awarded hence this equipment will assist in directing storm water.”

But the greatest challenge, said Segokgo, is the landfill, which has to do with inadequate machinery to manage disposal of waste to the required standards prescribed in Environmental Management Plan.

“The frequent breakdown of the available machinery worsens the situation. The landfill incinerator has not been working since October 2014. Council is currently using Botswana Police College incinerator to alleviate the situation,” Segokgo said.

He said outsourcing the management of this facility can relieve them from these challenges and they should seriously consider this option going forward.

“This is one area that this Council have to take with the utmost seriousness it’s deserves. We need to find other options to help managing waste. One of them will be to consider taking waste as something that the council can derive revenue from by selling waste to waste recycling companies,” said the youthful leader.

This is a system, as done in places like South Korea and Italy, is selling waste to companies to produce animal feeds, paper and Vet produce, he said.