Media Statement For Immediate Release Tuesday, 12 August 2014 North West Legislature Celebrates with Women in Ramotshere-Moiloa In celebrating the Women’s Month, the North West Provincial Legislature held Women in Dialogue Session in Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality to engage about challenges and opportunities in government and private sector. The event was attended by women in business, home based-care centres, tertiary institutions, projects, South African Police Services and different representatives from the Department of Social Development. Under the theme The Role of Women in Moving South Africa Forward” which was discussed under the following topic; “Women Defeating Poverty, Unemployment and Inequality in Moving South Africa Forward, women presented on their various roles in their field of work. Amongst challenges mentioned were that Ramotshere - Moiloa Local Municipality area is a slowly developing area where there is a high rate of crime and unemployment. But within these challenges, women created projects to empower themselves and their respective communities. Some women have opened small projects in sewing and agriculture. They raised concerns that there is no enough support from government to ensure that these businesses are sustainable. Ms. Puoeng Khutswane from Puoeng Projects runs a sewing business registered under the Department of Social Development and mentioned that she cannot sustain the business because of lack of funds to purchase material to sow her garments. “We have minimum support from the Department of Social Development. It has affected production in the business,” said Ms. Khutswane. Ms Tshepo Phoko, a Community Development Practitioner in the Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality under the Department of Social Development said Institutional Capacity Building programme is aimed at developing members of different cooperatives. “The department has adopted business plans of registered projects and cooperatives and will capacitate and sustain them. There is still a challenge of funding in some projects,” said Ms. Phoko. The Deputy Speaker of the Legislature, Hon. Jane Manganye encouraged women to utilize all relevant opportunities to educate themselves for better future. “Government must also assist women on issues of agriculture so that they can empower themselves on issues of food security in our province and supply neighbouring countries. “As the Deputy Speaker, I will ensure that we meet with relevant department to address challenges of budget constraints to allocate for more projects for women,” said Hon Manganye.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 07:20:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015