'Together let's fight poverty'- FCC Mayor

Patricia Edwin
Staff Writer | Thursday August 23, 2012 00:00

Maiketso was speaking at the opening of Francistown ordinary full council meeting in Francistown this week. He said that poverty eradication is one of the initiatives that should be prioritised, adding that the city council was currently addressing the matter. 'Four hundred and seventy-two beneficiaries have been enrolled in backyard projects for Phase I and 905 have been enrolled for phase II in our city,' he said. He further said that the council was allocated P7,228,953 at the beginning of July and the funds are both for training and funding of alternative packages carried out by FCC through Social and Community Development (S&CD) department.

The mayor went on to talk about some beneficiaries that were trained.  'I must hasten to indicate that a total of 150 beneficiaries were trained in small business management and preparations are on-going to take all those who were not trained for training,' said Maiketso.  He added that beneficiaries are trained in different categories, ranging from beauty and hair care, floor polish production, food catering and business management. However, he said that water availability was a challenge to the council, despite efforts of finding ways of providing water for the identified areas for gardening purposes.

'The boreholes identified at Masemenyenga are reported to be polluted and consultations with different stakeholders on how the beneficiaries can be assisted is on-going,' he advised. Maiketso further stated that in the same spirit, the Department of Wildlife also has five backyard guinea fowl farmers who have been issued with permits and are actively breeding in the city through the poverty eradication programme. 'Amongst these farmers, four are women and one is a man. Three more permits have been received and are still under consideration. A tour to model wildlife-related projects within and out of the district will be undertaken before the end of the year to foster conservation related entrepreneurship,' he said. He also said that the city is currently managing a brick-moulding project as a way of poverty eradication on behalf of the Ministry of Lands and Housing (MLH). 'The housing project was revived in October 2010 with a capital of P204,789.43 and 24 beneficiaries. I must indicate that despite our efforts, five beneficiaries have dropped out citing low pay,' he said.  Beneficiaries in these projects are apparently paid P20 per day. He said that the project is intended to be sustainable, while equipping beneficiaries with knowledge. 'Currently the project is running with a vote balance of P242,329.36 and bricks are delivered at a cost of P100 within a radius of 20 kilometres in Francistown,' said the mayor.