North West provincial government has only 80 days to change the lives of the most impoverished wards within the Ratlou Local Municipality. These were the lines of march issued by the National Minister of Social Development Edna Molewa during her outreach programme at the area on Tuesday.
Minister Molewa issued these instructions following her visit to the area, where she experienced what she described as a major challenge facing the Ratlou community. The area has been identified as the second most impoverished within the North West province after the Taung Municipality. According to Minister Molewa the challenges in those areas include among others, unemployment, Housing, lack of Health services, lack of identification documents and many other basic services required in every habitable place.
Minister Molewa visited the area of Matloding and Masamane villages which are both more than Hundred Kilometers away from Mafikeng. According to Molewa the area needs an urgent intervention and further called on government department's to ensure that services are being rendered at those villages including other surrounding areas. About 309 people in 33 families visited managed to receive immediate intervention, in a form of grant registration, food parcels, and birth certificate and identity documents registration.
Among other interventions that Molewa sited as the midterm interventions was the provision of 55 Bicycles to school going children who travel more than 15 kilometers daily to the nearest school, provision of proper house holds to some families who by findings live in a dilapidated mud houses, provision of health care and subsidisation of Early Child Wood Development Centres in the area. All these shall be delivered in 80 days and shall be done in collaboration with relevant government departments and local authority (Ratlou Local Municipality)
She said her efforts were part of the President's call on the implementation of the Poverty Eradication Strategy and the ruling party's mandate to reach the millennium goal of halving poverty by 2014. The sentiments were shared by the provincial MEC for Health and Social Development Ms Rebecca Kasienyane. In her words Kasienyane viewed the line of march as a call to speed up change and further undertook to avail resources to ensure that the Minister's call becomes a reality.
For further details please call:
Mpumelelo Nhlapo
The Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 018 384 0245
Cell: 083 626 0940
Issued by: Department of Health and Social Development, North West Provincial Government
22 July 2009
