Status Quo
6.4 Transversal Programmes (Office of the Mayor)
6.4.1 Youth and the aged
The municipality has established a youth desk in the office of the Mayor. The desk will solely focus on youth development and also ensuring greater involvement of the young people in economic activities. A youth council was established and is currently functional. Amongst other responsibilities the council does the following:
! Organise and coordinate youth programmes within the municipality
! Initiate and run youth developmental programmes
! Organise seminars and educational workshops on various issues such as health, career guidance, business management etc.
! Network with National and Provincial and District agencies aimed at youth development
! The office of the Mayor is giving support to the old aged homes in Motetema and Moutse
Challenges facing the youth and the aged are:
! The youth are faced with a huge challenge of unemployment
! Inadequate educational facilities/institutions such as technikons, FET colleges and Universities
! Poverty alleviation programmes for the youth
! Pension pay-‐points for the aged
! Inadequate old aged homes for the elders
6.4.2 Traditional healers
The traditional healers’ organisation has been established with the assistance of the office of the mayor. The relationship between the municipality and the traditional healers is gradually growing however; there are still issues that the municipality needs to engage the traditional healers on in order to improve their operating conditions. Currently, the participation of traditional healers in the Mayoral programmes is satisfying.
Traditional healers are in need of a land to erect clinic.
6.4.3 Women Caucus
Women across the municipality are faced with a number challenges that needs the attention of government and the society to act on and ensure better living of women. The municipality, through the Office of the Mayor, established a Women Caucus Forum that will pay attention to issues of women. The role of the forum is to establish and co-‐ordinate programmes and also deal with problematic issues that impacts negatively on women.
6.4.4 The Disabled
While there is limited information on employment rates for the disabled, low literacy, low employment rates and widespread social stigma are making it difficult for disabled people to participate in economic activities in the municipal area.
It is vital the municipality and other governmental agencies should create conditions for the disabled to access educational and employment opportunities. In addition, the municipality endeavours to facilitate:
! interventions that will include deepening preventative health programs
! screen all children at a young age
! empower disabled young adults with employable skills
! encourage the private sector to employ people with disabilities
! ensure full integration by overcoming stigma
! promote newer thinking and better coordination of programs
! improve the measurement of disability to ensure that the scale of disability is better understood.
In addition, the public participation processes in the municipality should actively encourage persons with disabilities to be visible and active participants in the development process.
Table 76: Persons with Disabilities in EMLM
Category 2001 2007
Sight 3677 1258
Hearing 2351 815
Communication 539 574
Physical 3144 928
Intellectual 1136 409
Emotional 1773 2282
Multiple 1768 154
Institution -‐ 893
Total 14388 7313
Source: Census, 2001 and Community Survey, 2007
The disabled persons of the municipality organised themselves and formulated a forum through engagement with the Mayor’s office. The forum is responsible for coordinating the needs of the disabled with regard to their educational needs. Unemployment and business development and their daily well-‐being.
Challenges facing the disabled are:
! Unemployment
! Poverty alleviation programmes
! Funding for programmes initiated by the disabled
6.4.5 Moral regeneration charter
There is a global observation that people have gone astray from their cultural norms and values, religion and believes. The municipality has in conjunction with the traditional healers, various church ministries and traditional leaders established a moral regeneration charter that will ensure that the history and culture of the society is conserved. The role of the forum is to establish village base structures that will assist making co-‐ordination much easier. The office of the Mayor will play a major role by developing programmes that will realise the objectives of the forum
Identified special groups needs are:
! Transport to attend meetings
! Skills development programme
! Employment opportunities that will help meet 2% target
! Brail machine for the visual impairment ( Disabled group)
! Stationary for all special schools and centres
! Provision of water and electricity in needy centres
! Financial assistance to the youth
! HIV/AIDS council co-‐ordination
! Old-‐aged centre requires a building
6.4.6 Early Child Development (ECD)
Centres for early child development have been established in most of the villages. Some of these centres get support from the Social Development department whilst others depend on contributions by beneficiaries.
The office of the Mayor is constantly meeting with representatives of these centres with an aim to give support where necessary. The municipality has to develop programmes that will help alleviate challenges the ECD centres are faced with.
Challenges facing ECDs are:
! Lack of proper learning centers
! Funding
! Inadequate support by National, Provincial and both local and district municipalities
6.4.7 Traditional healers
A formation of traditional healers was established in the office of the Mayor to serve the aspirations and interests of the traditional healers. As a forum, traditional healers submitted the following needs:
! Clinics
! Offices
! Fencing of sites
! Heritage site
! Refurbishment of Moutse show ground
Strategic Objectives and Programmes