Johnathan Paoli
THE Acting Director-General and Government Spokesperson Nomonde Mnukwa has praised the 20 years of existence of the Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP) and said that it represented one of the country’s success stories of mass public employment and was by far one of the largest poverty alleviation initiatives.
Mnukwa, in a post Cabinet briefing on Thursday and said that it had received a briefing on the implementation and achievements of the EPWP, a flagship government programme that has provided millions of work opportunities to unemployed South Africans since its inception.
She said the programme has over the past 20 years created over 14 million work opportunities, making it the largest continuous public employment programme in the world and that this milestone was achieved through continuous partnerships with the private sector and civil society.
“These work opportunities have contributed to skills development for the participants as they were created under a range of EPWP projects in the tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, social projects and projects led by women,” Mnukwa said.
The spokesperson confirmed that 4 609 000 work opportunities were created during Phase 4 medium term of the programme, which covers the period from 2019 to 2023 and that this figure represented a 92% achievement against the target set by the sixth administration to create five million work opportunities.
In addition, she said that plans were in place to achieve the remaining 390 973 work opportunities by March of this year.
Mnukwa said the top three provinces where most work opportunities have been created are KwaZulu-Natal, which accounts for 1 064 000 opportunities (23%), followed by the Eastern Cape, with 903 789 (20%) and the Western Cape at 508 954 (11%).
She said that although most of these opportunities are short term to medium term, some have resulted in permanent employment, with figures indicating that more than 20% of participants obtained employment outside the programme.
“Many past EPWP participants have successfully completed diplomas in fields such as professional cookery and some are permanently employed in the hospitality industry. In addition to work opportunities, the EPWP also contributes much more in terms of service delivery, and improvements of amenities in communities and a better quality of life,” the spokesperson said.
In conclusion she said that over R52 billion has been transferred to the programme participants as wages and that over 600 businesses were subsequently established.
ANC SG Fikile Mbalula has praised the programme as part of the ruling party’s attempt at creating economic policy interventions which sought to promote economic growth and transformation and an overriding economic objective to accelerate job creation, particularly for young people.
“Our manifesto reflects the fact that ANC policies are driven by the interests of the masses of ordinary people and the working class, whose interests we continue to put at the centre of our economic policy,” Mbalula said.
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