MINISTER SEKATLE TO HOLD PUBLIC GATHERINGS

The Minister of Local Government and a Member of Parliament for the Qacha's nek Constituency, Dr Ponts'o Sekatle will hold a series of public gatherings on subsidized summer cropping programme from Wednesday.

The Qacha's nek District Secretary, Mr. Lekhotla Ts'eane, said the first public gathering would be held at Letsoha Primary School at Sekhalabateng, and followed by the one to be held at Ha Sekake on Thursday. Mr. Ts'eane showed that the aim of the public gatherings is to raise awareness on the importance and the purpose of the subsidized summer cropping so that all farmers could fully engage in the cultivation. He said, the Minister's focus would be in places that will be planted by cattle and not tractors, as they are also included in the programme.

The Qacha's nek district, he said, has a total of 13 tractors to work for the programme, which he said are small in number, but efforts are being made to find additional tractors from Matatiele farmers in South Africa. Mr. Ts'eane said people would be notified by their chiefs in their areas when the time to work for food aid comes, and ways that will be used to implement it correctly so that it could meet its purpose of alleviating poverty and hunger.

02 October,2002