GCC funding dries as numbers of needy children balloon
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday June 24, 2015 15:50
While the Gaborone City Council (GCC) approved a P321.1 million budget largely sponsored by government for the 2015/16 financial year, the local authority has said the figure is way below requirements in the capital.
The Council’s social safety nets presently support 1,725 beneficiaries who include 1,059 orphans, 417 needy students, 167 destitute persons, 47 children in need of care and 35 Community Home Based Care patients.
City mayor, Kagiso Thutlwe on Monday told the ongoing full council meeting that the numbers of the needy in the city was on the rise. “The increases in the numbers of needy students and children in need of care are due to increases in the number of graduating orphans whose caregivers do not have adequate means of support as well as higher numbers of children with disabilities who need assistance through social safety nets,” he said. In the first quarter of the year, the city was supporting 1,648 beneficiaries, with the number rising to 1,725 in the current period. Between March and May 2015, Thutlwe said that 305 civil and child welfare cases were reported and attended to. Thutlwe said females constituted the majority of ‘clients’ in these cases. “Let us work together to uphold the moral fabric of our society and become better role models. Our society is on a downward spiral as family structures are crumbling,” he said.