Programme Director
Ministers
Deputy Ministers
Executive Mayor
Councillors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to address this milestone Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Social Sector Conference today.
Since the genesis of the democratic dispensation, the South African government has developed policies which have focused on poverty alleviation, improving economic growth, relaxing import controls and reducing the budget deficit. Poverty reduction is a stated policy goal.
Section 27 of the South African Constitution commits the government to eliminating poverty, as it states in sub-section 1 that: Everyone has the right to have access to (a) health care services, including reproductive health care; (b) sufficient food and water; and (c) social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants, appropriate social assistance.
In the same Section 27, sub-section 2 states that the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights of the government‘s commitment to eliminating poverty, as enshrined in the constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108, 1996).
South Africa still remains one of the highest in the world in terms of income inequality. Inequality is also demonstrated through lack of access to natural resources; a two tiered educational system; a dual health system; and other socio-economic dimensions.
Poverty and inequality in South Africa have racial, gender, spatial and age dimensions. Therefore, the concentration of poverty lies predominantly with black Africans, women, rural areas and black youth. The issue of poverty and unemployment continues to remain a challenge for the government.
Our country faces a threefold crisis of employment, poverty and inequality. Unemployment remains high.
The establishment of the EPWP was announced by former President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation Address in February 2003. This is one of government’s short to medium term programmes aimed at creating work opportunities and enhancing skill levels through the delivery of essential services. At the policy conference in 2002 of the African National Congress (ANC), resolved that there should be a large scale expansion of the use of labour-intensive construction methods to alleviate unemployment and to address the backlogs of infrastructure in previously disadvantaged areas.
Therefore in 2004 (EPWP) was introduced as a national priority public works programme with the purpose of creating jobs for the unemployed utilising labour intensive methods rather than capital based technologies. The aim of the programme is to create opportunities for the unemployed to engage in productive work, and obtain skills which would be sustainable. The EPWP was created with the purpose of job creation, infrastructure development and service delivery, training and skills development.
EPWP therefore was announced as a primary driver of job creation within the machinery of government to help combat joblessness and to fight poverty.
The EPWP is a nationwide programme covering all spheres of government and state-owned enterprises that aims to draw significant numbers of unemployed into productive work, accompanied by training, so that they increase their capacity to earn an income.
The high levels of unemployment and poverty remain issues of grave concern in our country, and the debate continues on how to address this situation in the most effective way. The EPWP model, however, is one of government’s most significant tools in the fight against these persistent social challenges, having as it does, the power to both alleviate poverty through employment and create solid infrastructure.
These are in line with the objectives which were formulated in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. The eight goals, comprising 18 specific targets, were adopted at the United Nations as part of the Millennium Declaration in 2000.
The eight goals are:
- to eradicate extreme poverty
- to achieve universal primary education
- to promote gender equality and empower women
- to reduce child mortality
- to improve maternal health
- to combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- to ensure environmental sustainability
- to develop a global partnership for development.
As we are all aware, the social sector consists of three departments, namely the Department of Social Development, Department of Health and the Department of Education. Keeping in mind that one of the aims of the Expanded Public Works Programme is the creation of work opportunities, it needs to be known that, while there is recognition that a number of programmes present a range of these opportunities, two programmes, those being Home Community Based Care (HCBC) and Early Childhood Development (ECD), HCBC provides comprehensive services, including health and social services, by formal and informal caregivers in the Home and Community Based Care and Support Programmes.
This is a response to AIDS-related hospital care. The programme hopes to equip thousands of unemployed people with the foundation skills and experience to enter into a Community Health and Development Worker (CH&DW) training programme. Early Childhood Development is the process by which children from birth to nine years are nurtured to grow and thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, morally and socially. The focus on EPWP in this case is from birth to six years. In both programmes, a number of practitioners have been targeted in order to develop their skills.
The national departments are responsible for policy and other necessary regulatory frameworks to enable the realisation of the programme, while at the provincial level; provincial departments should identify opportunities and allocate the conditional grants based on national priorities to partnering organisations at local level.
The HIV and AIDS pandemic is one of the few social health problems in which the disease impacts not only the physical health of individuals, but also their social identity. The HIV and AIDS pandemic is the major factor which has put South Africa back in terms of the Millennium Development Goals 2, 4, 5, and 6, which are devoted to health and education.
It is pivotal to recognise that the EPWP is one of the key direct interventions in alleviating and even contributing towards halving poverty by 2014 in line with the Millennium Development Goals.
Ladies and gentleman, today EPWP is now on its 9th year of implementation. There have been valuable lessons learned since its inception. As a result, it was realised that to have a noticeable impact on unemployment and poverty, the second phase must be scaled up with the involvement of all spheres of government, and particularly local government, who are at the coalface of service delivery.
Government’s vision 2014 was clearly articulated in the ruling party ANC Manifesto: “Guided by the RDP, our vision is to build a society that is truly united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic. Central to this is a single and integrated economy that benefits all.”
Through Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) the government committed itself to halve unemployment and poverty to achieve this goal, our government paid particular attention to the concerns of women and youth.
We are happy as the province that we have intensified our efforts to improve and speed up our pace of delivery of the much needed infrastructure with the sole purpose of growing the economy and reducing poverty and unemployment in the province. The Province will continue to broaden access to constitutional rights through public works, rural development and the Expanded Public Works Programme. This will also be done in a way that builds safe, secure and sustainable communities.
Programme Director, the challenge of drawing significant numbers of the unemployed into productive work remains with us today, not only in the North West, but throughout our country. But the challenge is not insurmountable. The Expanded Public Works Programme is pointing the way in the right direction.
The Expanded Public Works Programme seeks to contribute to skills development, thus increasing job opportunities and enterprise development. As you are all aware, the EPWP projects target youth, women and people with disabilities who are provided with relevant training and productive employment opportunities.
Care givers produced by this sector of EPWP are also playing a critical role in caring for those living with HIV and AIDS in the province. In order to increase the scale of the sector as desired and planned, a number of key issues had to be resolved.
We call upon our municipalities to play an important role in creating long lasting job opportunities to our people.
We must work together in partnership with our communities and business to fight poverty, hunger, and to create decent jobs to “build a better life for all”.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are confident that the decisions that you will arrive at in this conference will serve as a catalyst for enormous labour intensive work opportunities and development for the people of South Africa.
I thank you.
