Remarks by DPWI Minister Sihle Zikalala during the EPWP Phase 5 Indaba, Tshedimosetso House, Pretoria
“Business Unusual: Unveiling the New Dawn of Public Employment and Cementing the Public Employment of the Future in South Africa!”
My Esteemed Colleague, the Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Ms Bernice Swarts;
Ministers and Deputy Ministers attending physically or virtually.
MECs and Mayors in our midst;
Directors-General present and the Acting Director-General of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, Ms Nyeleti Makhubele;
Esteemed colleagues from National and Provincial Departments, Municipalities, State-Owned Enterprises, and our honoured guests from International Organisations, including the International Labour Organisation;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
We have assembled physically and virtually to engage on a proposal for our nation’s future through the Expanded Public Works Programme Phase 5.
We are at a crossroad where fiscal constraints meet the urgency of our unemployment crisis.
Our nation, like many others, grapples with the mammoth challenge of unemployment, especially youth unemployment.
Some of our young adults, now in their forties, have never had the opportunity to work.
The ILO reports that as of 2023, the global unemployment rate is estimated at 5.7%. In this picture, some regions are experiencing higher unemployment rates because of specific socio-economic factors.
Youth unemployment is still the most pressing issue across the globe, and this was worsened by the devastation emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 32.6 % in South Africa. It is said to be one of the highest in the world, surpassing unemployment in the occupied Gaza strip, the West Bank, and Kosovo.
The South African youth is disproportionately affected, constituting a huge portion of the unemployed youth that feels left out. Last month the United Nations joined many others to describe our unemployment picture as a ticking time bomb.
In Quarter 2, youth unemployment rate remains alarming at 60.7% underscoring the importance of targeted public employment programmes to cushion the youth from extreme poverty, especially in a context of rising cost of living that is squeezing everyone, including the middle strata of society.
These numbers are not mere statistics; they embody the aspirations, hopes, and boundless potential of our youth, which is currently tethered to the shackles and tyranny of unemployment.
This reality is not a narrative of despair, but a call to action for innovation, creativity, and effective solutions.
Each unemployed youth represents a deferred dream, an unfulfilled promise, and a seed of talent awaiting the right soil to flourish.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and indeed the whole of government, is cognisant of this challenge and is steadfast in its resolve to mitigate this through effective, holistic, and sustainable interventions.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are often told that the Arab Spring taught us that unemployed youths can easily transform from an unemployment challenge to a security threat.
The narrative of EPWP Phase 5 is, therefore, not just about combating unemployment.
It is about rewriting the story of our youth from one of despair to one of hope, from stagnation to growth, and from dependency to self-reliance.
And the dignified, creative, and dynamic South African youth has always been crystal clear: They want a hand up, not hand-outs!
They keep telling distant bureaucrats, a number of who are divorced from their reality and grinding poverty that, “nothing about us with us.”
We need to listen more and connect with our youth and their dreams.
While acknowledge a number of the successes in the EPWP programme and the difference it has made in the lives of our people, it cannot be business as usual.
This is an unambiguous directive from Cabinet.
We have to move beyond quantity to quality. We cannot just count numbers without talking impact. Without addressing sustainability.
As we think about repositioning and rebranding the EPWP, we must speak more about how the programme contributes to improving the delivery of services and change the lives of communities.
It is this gathering that must help our nation to move beyond seeing the EPWP as an employment agency and even a source of conflict given the scarcity of jobs and the potential for corruption and taking advantage of vulnerable, unemployed citizens.
And so, we have not gathered here to tick the boxes and to follow malicious compliance. If that has been the practice, then you are in the wrong place.
We are here as senior leaders and state bureaucrats not to rearrange the deck in a sinking titanic.
We are entrusted with an enormous responsibility, a task that requires a patriotic, professional cadre of public servants.
These are public servants that that feel the pain and cries of our unemployed youth and women.
These are public servants who are seized with the challenge and are thinking outside the box to find answers for the suffering poor.
Anything less, any laziness, and foot dragging, is nothing short of being described as treasonous.
It cannot be business as usual and we cannot go on earning handsomely from a programme like EPWP while doing as little as possible in an environment where the intended beneficiaries remain hopeless as we fail to make an impact and dent on unemployment.
It is a bad example, and I use the word insanity advisedly, to demonstrate that we need to answer the call and change course, starting today.
As they put it, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Fellow patriots, as we venture into the realm of EPWP Phase 5, our core focus should gravitate towards not just creating employment opportunities but crafting pathways of continuous growth, learning, and empowerment.
Our initiative to absorb some of the National Youth Service (NYS) graduates from EPWP into the reviving DPWI workshops is thus a cornerstone of this vision.
The revitalised DPWI workshops are envisioned as crucibles of innovation, skills development, and practical exposure.
By integrating NYS graduates into these workshops, we aim to foster a culture of continuous learning and hands-on experience, ensuring our youth are not just employable, but are drivers of innovation and change.
Our goal goes beyond employment generation. It is about nurturing a skilled, self-reliant populace that contributes constructively to our nation’s socio-economic fabric.
As we unveil the EPWP Phase 5, the essence of doing more with less propels us to foster a culture of creativity and efficiency. It drives us towards exploring alternative funding mechanisms, enhancing coordination, and bolstering our operational efficacy.
Global public employment programs like India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) aims at enhancing the livelihood security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
India's advanced reporting system, capable of accommodating our entire population, is a beacon of technological advancement that underlines the potential of integrating modern systems to bolster efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
It is a clarion call for us to evolve and embrace technologies that not only augment our operational efficacy but also engender a culture of data-driven decision-making and resource optimisation.
Rwanda’s “Umuganda” cleaning program could inspire us to create public cleaning programmes that can contribute to income support whilst keeping our public places clean and hygienic. In Kigali, you may struggle to find a piece of paper on the ground as the society has embraced a culture of cleanliness.
Our priority projects in road maintenance, energy, waste, recycling, and cleaning government buildings should not just sectors of employment, but arenas of innovation, skills development, and environmental stewardship.
As architects and champions of the programme, let us also make our contribution in greening our country, eliminating the carbon footprint, and creating climate resilient communities.
EPWP participants must help our country to have a positive impact on the delivery of services.
Equally, the emphasis on training, enterprise development, and ensuring a transformational journey for our participants is central.
The vision of crafting exit pathways is a testament to our long-term commitment towards ensuring that the journey through EPWP leads to enhanced future employability, self-employment, cooperatives or enterprises that can employ more people.
Our vision of creating exit pathways is centred on ensuring that as participants transition out of the program, they are not stepping back into the abyss of poverty and uncertainty, but are striding confidently onto avenues of self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, and meaningful employment.
As we unveil the draft proposal for EPWP Phase 5, we are extending an invitation to each one of you to be a part of this transformative journey. A journey that does not just aim to change lives but aims to change the narrative of our nation.
Our fiscal constraints are a call to arms for fostering a culture of effective coordination, across all spheres of Government. It is also an invitation to collectively devise funding mechanisms that are not just effective, but sustainable.
As we repackage our proposal during this Indaba and refine our strategies, the core ethos remains unchanged - to deliver a programme that addresses the unemployment challenge sustainably, with impact, and in a transformational manner.
The road ahead beckons the collective wisdom, expertise, and commitment of each individual present here.
As we unveil the draft proposal for EPWP Phase 5, let us embrace the spirit of collaborative engagement, innovative thinking, and resolve towards creating a brighter future for our youth, women, communities, and nation.
Subsequent to the 2019 General Elections, His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa, implored all government officials to embrace the Khawuleza Model. This was a genuine, clarion call aimed at accelerating the tempo of service delivery and the unleashing of programmatic interventions meant to ameliorate the living conditions of the vulnerable poor.
We have called for the EPWP to be restructured to be impactful and contribute to service delivery. We must address the challenges that have compromised EPWP. We are aware that:
- There is a lack of coordination and ineffectiveness of structures in charge of the programme;
- We need to improve the implementation framework from recruitment to the end. Implementation should be bolstered through effective monitoring and accountability.
- There is a need to define impactful projects. Whilst providing jobs opportunities and skills, there is also a need to contribute towards improving the quality and delivery of services to the people;
- There is a need to improve the training to provide meaningful skills while preserving the cost benefit;
- Ensure there are proper exit plans through enterprise development and linking other beneficiaries with permanent employment.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure cannot afford to relegate its mandate to be limited to merely reporting on targets than being actively involved itself in creating job opportunities. That will be a disastrous laissez-faire approach which undermines the essence and objectives of a developmental state wherein the NDP mandates a capable, developmental state to effectively address the root causes of the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality.
Thomas Sankara encourages us to have a little bit of madness to leave a legacy that the vulnerable poor can be proud of.
It is him who said: “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. Besides, it took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen.”
I want to challenge you to change yourselves, challenge you to think outside the box, challenge you to dare invent the future where our vulnerable youth and women of this country can have meaningful and tangible hope.
I challenge all professionals in the public service to care, to be activist, to make a lasting contribution through the public employment programme to address the unemployment challenge that faces our nation.
No one will do it for us.
Allow me to leave you with the words of John Schaar who said: “The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.”
It is in your hands to implement the public employment of the future in South Africa.
And may the programme live up to its promise and motto: South Africa Work Because of Public Works!
I thank you.
