L Hendricks: Job Creation Trust award ceremony

27 October 2006

Chairperson of the Job Creation Trust Mr Willie Madisha
Trustees and Board Members of the Job Creation Trust
Honoured guests
Programme director
Ladies and gentlemen

I am proud to be here tonight to join you for the Annual Labour Job Creation
Trust award ceremony, which takes places on the same day as the renaming of
Johannesburg International Airport to OR Tambo International Airport. The ideas
and philosophy of OR Tambo remain relevant to the African National Congress
(ANC) government and its Alliance partners.

When one looks around our country we see progress; there are massive
infrastructure development taking place; both large and small scale
construction projects, with construction sites on almost every corner. The OR
Tambo Airport with its upgrading to accommodate millions more visitors to our
shores is but one example. We also see more and more new cars on our roads; and
huge growth in the retail sector. These are just a few signs of the success of
our economy, which can be seen in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth data,
levels of activity in the economy, and in other economic data.

There is no doubt that our economy is doing better than ever before, even
those who feared what an ANC government would do to the South African economy
when we took office in 1994, concede how well we are doing. Ordinary people
both black and white have a better standard of living and enjoy a better
quality of life.

Yet there is an underlying tension. There are people without jobs, without
access to basic services, people who are dependent on social grants and people
who live in poor conditions and poverty. Increasingly there is recognition that
while between races there are greater levels of equality, the levels of
inequalities between classes in South Africa have not shifted significantly
since the end of apartheid, with the Gini coefficient, the measure of
inequality in a country, showing little improvement in South Africa.

Responding to the challenges

In 1994 the ANC government inherited a poorly performing economy and
limited, if any, social welfare support to the majority of the population. The
changes that we have been through when looked at in aggregate over the past 12
years have been phenomenal. A good example of this can be seen in the water
sector where more than 15 million more people now have access to water and the
sanitation backlog was reduced from 52% to 31%.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is how we respond to the challenges of poverty and
inequality that shows what kind of government and society we are. The ANC
government has committed itself to be a caring government that is committed to
redressing the imbalances of the past through growing the economy, providing
access to basic services, creating a social safety net and creating jobs. We
have supported the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United
Nations to halve the proportion of people who are living in poverty by 2015. In
other areas such as sanitation and water we are committed to going even further
than the target of the MDGs by providing universal access to these
services.

The creation of a social safety net through access to clinics, child care
support, improved pensions, and other social grants as well as provision of
basic services such as water and electricity is critical to the success of our
democracy and creating a better life for our people. The push to achieving
universal access over the next few years therefore cannot be underestimated,
particularly in the context of high unemployment.

While it is very necessary that our government provides social welfare
support and universal access to basic services we are all aware that it is not
sustainable if we do not achieve higher levels of employment.

Job Creation Trust and Department of Water Affairs and Forestry

With the enormity of the unemployment problems that face us and the legacy
of Apartheid education and skills levels, requires creative responses to job
creation. The recognition that it is not solely the responsibility of the state
but all players in society to create jobs is to be applauded, and the role of
our social partners in contributing to these efforts remains relevant.

The Job Creation Trust is an excellent initiative that we, as the Department
of Water Affairs and Forestry, are fully supportive of as a means to create
employment. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that we are signing tonight
is about collaboration between government and labour to co-operate and work
closely together in addressing what is one of the most pressing issues in South
Africa today. The principle behind the MOU is of creating additional sanitation
jobs as part of my department's efforts to achieve universal access to
sanitation.

This initiative has also involved other strategic partners such Umsobomvu
Youth Fund, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Departments of
Public Works, Provincial and Local Government and the South African Local
Government Association (SALGA).

The background to this initiative was a national seminar that was held in
April 2005, co-hosted by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and the
Labour Job Creation Trust, where the participants made a firm commitment to
further collaboration through the establishment of a Sanitation Job Creation
National Task Team.

The National Task Team was mandated to formulate and implement a Programme
of Action that would ensure that the principles of the programme became
standard procedures in the delivery of sanitation services in all
municipalities. The National Task Team was established in May 2005, and
representatives meet on a regular basis for the purposes of co-ordinating
activities and implementing the Programme of Action based on the Position Paper
and Municipal Guide that have been compiled and endorsed by all the
partners.

In summary, Sanitation Job Creation Programme is expected to meet at least
four aims:

* supporting the eradication of the sanitation backlog by creating
additional skills and capacity in the sector
* developing marketable skills in individuals and communities
* creating sustainable jobs for the currently unemployed, targeting the poor,
women, youth and the disabled
* contributing to Local Economic Development.

My predecessor then launched the Sanitation Job Creation Programme through a
sanitation initiative at Mawa Village in Limpopo Province on 13 December 2005.
The launch of the initiative gave both impetus and National significance to the
programme as well as highlighted some of the challenges in implementing such
programmes.

Sanitation remains one of our development challenges and in providing
sanitation services we are able to create job opportunities and contribute to
poverty reduction. It is therefore of strategic importance for DWAF to have a
MOU and partnership with the Job Creation Trust.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between my department and the
Labour Job Creation Trust will open up new opportunities for creation of more
jobs. When we did some analysis on the impact of changing our approach to the
delivery of sanitation services by having a focused job creation programme to
increase employment, particularly local employment, we found that up to 35 000
new jobs would be created during the implementation of our programme to achieve
universal access to sanitation. What is important to us is that we will
prioritise local labour, local businesses and local suppliers in the delivery
of sanitation; and that we will provide these labourers with real and valuable
skills that can be used even after the project has ended.

This partnership will support the programme rollout and pilot to selected
municipalities such as Mkhanyakude in KwaZulu-Natal; Alfred Nzo in Eastern
Cape; and Greater Tzaneen in Limpopo. And we look forward to successful
implementation of projects in these municipalities. We will also be signing
Memorandums of Understanding with the pilot municipalities to ensure buy in and
sustainability of the programme.

My department has also allocated a budget of R2 million in this financial
year to help facilitate this job creation programme.

In conclusion, I want to remind every body here today that women and youth
play a key role in development and in the delivery of services. I therefore
encourage the Trust to ensure that women co-operatives and small medium and
micro enterprises (SMMEs) are particularly targeted in its projects as far as
possible so that they can claim their rightful place in sanitation delivery, as
they are the ones who ensure that there is water in their homes and that their
families are protected from water borne diseases.

Water is life, sanitation is dignity!!!

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
27 October 2006
Source: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (http://www.dwaf.gov.za)