H Yawa: Southern Region Extended Public Works Programme Certification
Award Function

15 March 2007

Programme director
Rev D J Tshaboko
The Mayor of Ventersdorp, Clr C Lephoi
Councillors
Head of Department, Mr O Mongale
Senior Management of the Department
The Regional Director, Ms Monnapula-Mazabane
Members of the Regional Management Team
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

Today we are here in the Southern Region to celebrate our milestone in the
skills revolution and the determination of our people to be part of the
partnership to create jobs, fight poverty and build a better life for all. We
are here as government to give practical meaning to our pledge to intensify the
struggle against poverty.

Our challenge as a country and people is to achieve the objectives that we
have set ourselves to fight poverty and halve unemployment by 2014. The Freedom
Charter adopted at the congress of the people in 1955 guides our
objectives.

The freedom charter constitutes the programme of the people of South Africa
for the creation of a truly democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, united and
prosperous country. It guides us about the broad outcomes that government must
pursue to achieve the strategic goal we have set ourselves to eradicate
poverty, unemployment and illiteracy through skills development. The historic
campus articulates a social, economic and moral vision of the society our
people wanted.

The giant of our liberation struggle, the late Oliver Reginald Tambo, in
1980 said the following on the charter, "The freedom charter contains the
fundamental perspective of the vast majority of the people of South Africa of
the kind of liberation that all of us are fighting for. Hence it is not merely
the Freedom Charter of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies.
Rather it is the charter of the people of South Africa for liberation. Because
it came from the people, it still remains a people's charter, the one basic
political statement of our goals to which all genuinely democratic and
patriotic forces of South Africa adhere."

Fifty-two years later and 13 years into the second decade of freedom and
democracy, the words of Comrade Tambo are still relevant. As the ANC government
and government of the people, there is nothing that we do or implement outside
the freedom charter.

As government we have set ourselves clear targets leading up to 2014, when
we will be celebrating our second decade of freedom. Some of the targets and
objectives making up vision are as follows:

* Reduce unemployment by half through new jobs, skills development,
assistance to small businesses, opportunities for self-employment and
sustainable community livelihoods.
* Reduce poverty by half through economic development, comprehensive social
security, land reform and improved household and community assets.
* Provide the skills required by the economy, build capacity and provide
resources across society to encourage self-employment with an education system
that is geared for productive work, good citizenship and a caring
society.
* Ensure that all South Africans, including especially the poor and those at
risk, children, youth, women, the aged, and people with disabilities, are fully
able to exercise their constitutional rights and enjoy the full dignity of
freedom.
* Compassionate government service to the people, national, provincial and
local public representatives who are accessible and citizens who know their
rights and insist on fair treatment and efficient service.
* Significantly reduce the number of serious and priority crimes as well as
cases awaiting trial, with a society that actively challenges crime and
corruption, and with programmes that also address the social roots of
criminality.
* Position South Africa strategically as an effective force in global
relations, with vibrant and balanced trade and other relations with countries
of the South and the North, and in an Africa that is growing, prospering and
benefiting all Africans, especially the poor.

The implementation of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy
signifies the importance we attach to our contribution to the realisation of
vision 2014. Our pledge to intensify the struggle against poverty is informed
by the sense of urgency that we deem necessary to accelerate our advance
towards meeting the goal of a better life for all our people.

As government we have introduced various programmes in ensuring that we meet
the objectives of vision 2014 and one of those programmes is the Expanded
Public Works Programme. The programme is aimed at closing the gap between the
first and the second economy. It is targeted at unemployed and unskilled
majority of our people who are denied economic participation and development as
a result of apartheid legacy of exclusion and marginalisation.

The Expanded Public Works Programme is aimed at:

* creating temporary work opportunities and income for at least one million
unemployed people
* providing needed public goods and services, labour-intensively, at acceptable
standards, through mainly public sector resources and public and private sector
implementation capacity
* increasing the potential of participants to earn a future income by providing
work experience, training and information related to local work opportunities,
further education and training, and small, medium and micro enterprise Small,
Medium and Micro-Enterprises (SMME) development.

The overall objective of the EPWP is to create additional work
opportunities, coupled with training, for a minimum of one million unemployed
people throughout our country over a five-year period. 40% of the targeted
beneficiaries are women, 30% are youth and 2%.

We are convinced that programme is on track to achieve its target because by
the end of its second year, some 7 800 projects had been implemented nationally
at an overall cost of almost R5.7 billion. This has resulted in more than 435
300 gross work opportunities and an overall wage bill in excess of R1.46
billion. The equivalent network opportunities estimated to be more than 383 700
is already well ahead of the 340 000 gross work opportunities targeted by the
EPWP. Women constituted 46% of the beneficiaries, Youth 39% and the disabled
1%. More than 2100 learnerships have also been instituted, mostly through
infrastructure development in the construction sector.

Provincially we have managed to create 40 000 job opportunities for the
unemployed since the launch of the programme. As part of our skill revolution
we have managed to train 14000 beneficiaries in bricklaying, plastering,
carpentry, electrical Construction, plumbing, wielding, tiling, paving and
landscaping. The empowerment included training in life skills such as HIV and
AIDS Awareness, Managing Personal Finances, Career guidance and Occupational
Health and Safety.

The 110 beneficiaries graduating today were involved in the construction and
renovation of, Ventersdorp Roads Camps 1, 2, and 5, Ventersdorp Roads District
Offices and Landscaping at Public Works Regional Offices, Potchefstroom. As a
department we have spent R872 722 towards training of 469 beneficiaries in this
financial year and we are confident that the beneficiaries have acquired skills
that have empowered them to enter the construction sector as entrepreneurs and
skilled labourers. We hope that the skills you have acquired would be put to
good use for the benefit of the community, your cooperatives and in your future
business ventures as entrepreneurs.

I wish to congratulate the beneficiaries for their tireless commitment to
the programme. With the skills gained you will be able to join the labour
market as skilled workers and take advantage of various opportunities that
government has made available to contribute to the country's economy.

We call on the private sector to tap into this skilled workforce as projects
that the beneficiaries were involved in attest to their capacity to deliver
quality infrastructure. We appreciate the commitment of the service providers
we had engaged to conduct training for the beneficiaries. Ours is truly a
partnership for the skills revolution, a partnership for empowerment, growth
and development.

In conclusion, let us once more congratulate the beneficiaries for seizing
the opportunity that government made available for them to acquire skills and
participating development in your community. With the skills gained you will be
able to participate, share and contribute in your country's economy. As you
begin to practice all the skills gained, I urge you as cadres for development
to show other community members the positive gains of being part of EPWP.
Encourage them to work with their councillors to intensify the struggle against
poverty in a partnership to build a better life for all.

Ke a leboga

Issued by: North West Provincial Government, Department of Public
Works
15 March 2007