T Didiza: National Executive Committee Strategy Planning session of
SALGA

4 August 2006

The Chairperson of SALGA, Councillor A Masondo
The Deputy Chairperson, Councillor O Mlaba
The Chief Executive Officer, Dr M Khoza
All the Provincial Chairpersons
Senior Government officials present
All the distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) was conceived as a
government-wide initiative to alleviate poverty through job-creation, skills
development and the improvement of public service delivery. It is one of
government’s short-to-medium term programmes aimed at alleviating and reducing
unemployment and un-employability and covers all spheres of government and
state-owned enterprise.

The programme involves re-orientating line budgets so that government
expenditure results in more work opportunities, particularly for the unskilled
labour. Therefore EPWP projects will be funded through the normal budgetary
process, through the budgets of line-function departments, provinces and
municipalities.

The concept reflects the organic thinking on the side of government and
follows a review of earlier interventions promulgated post-1994 under
reconstruction and development. Shortly before 2004, the government review of
the first decade of democracy presented us with lessons that we have since
incorporated into our future visions and EPWP is part of that vision, as we set
ourselves new challenges and targets including the commitment to halve poverty
by 2014.

Poverty eradication and the creation of a better life for all is the
cornerstone of the government’s business plan and are sacrosanct to our mandate
to govern. The main characteristic of poverty is a lack of access to means of
production and livelihood and this encompasses lack of access to basic but
essential services. As a government representative of the will of the people,
we have more than a duty to intervene, we have an obligation.

Let me say upfront that the success of EPWP is an act of patriotism that we
as elected officials can barely afford to neglect. It is a clarion call from
the President and the country to make a contribution to easing poverty by using
public funds at our disposal to do that which we would normally do except that
we are required to identify innovative ways to engage as many unemployed people
as the scope of our projects can possibly allow. It is a mind shift. Given the
time pressures that we are often subjected to in the delivery of products and
services, most of us would rather opt for the quickest methods of delivery
including use of machinery for jobs that lend themselves easily to
labour-intensity. We are conscious of this hurdle and our “Guidelines for the
Implementation of Labour-Intensive Infrastructure Projects under the EPWP”
articulate this concern accurately:

Labour-intensive construction methods involve the use of an appropriate mix
of labour and machines, with preference for labour where technically and
economically feasible, without compromising the quality of the product.

We have even made it an eligibility requirement that the key staff of
contractors and the consulting engineers involved in the provision of these
projects must undergo special accredited training programmes in
labour-intensive construction. What is required in most municipalities is the
political will and decisive leadership. Our experience in the programme shows
us that where there is political hands-on, the results are discernible.

At MinMec level, EPWP forms part of our strategic conversations and we are
beginning to interpret the role of Public Works differently. Many might have
read in the media the explicit expression of the President to “overhaul” Public
Works. Having read the statements myself, I echo the sentiment of the President
because it is not contradictory at all. The forefathers and foremothers of the
Public Works policy formulation in the 1997 White Paper, actually emphasised
its role as a leader in the intervention of poverty and underdevelopment, a
leader in creating opportunities for jobs and an instrument in the hands of the
state to intervene in the labour market effectively.

Therefore we shall be shirking our responsibility as political leadership if
we were to be content with being just the co-coordinators of the EPWP. We are
asserting ourselves as leaders and drivers of the EPWP, and SALGA leadership
should be an important element of that assertion. We view you as such. We call
on you to have EPWP as also part of your daily strategic conversations.

Through the 2004 Division of Revenue Act, government placed some additional
conditions on the Provincial and Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MGI). These
require the provinces and municipalities to use the EPWP guidelines agreed upon
between SALGA, National Treasury and the Department of Public Works to
identify, design and construct projects financed under these conditional
grants. However, narrow reliance on MIG only for the procurement of these
projects means that mostly small, less impact projects will be provided. We say
it is not enough. In an effort to upscale and massify the size and the impact
of the programme we urge the municipalities to begin to subject even their own
resources to EPWP-inclined projects.

Opportunities for implementing the EPWP have been identified in other
sectors other than infrastructure, namely economic, social and environmental.
In terms of SALGA, we believe there is potential for partnerships in subjecting
the environmental spectre to EPWP parameters particularly areas of waste
management, cleaning and greening. Recently I sat through a presentation
looking at maximising job creation and labour absorption in the domestic waste
management field.

According to the study, there is a challenge in the sense those more than
five million households in the majority of our municipalities “do not receive
adequate waste collection…the problem is extensive, affecting all Provinces”
metros and 209 municipalities identified). The report stated that “successful
case studies for collecting waste have been implemented in 16 municipalities
across South Africa, involving four hundred thousand households” If successful,
the initiative will assist municipalities to implement labour-intensive
domestic waste collection programmes in the under-serviced areas while at the
same time improving service delivery in the form of cleaner environments and a
willingness to contribute to financial viability of the municipality. Together
with Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and Department of
Enviromental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the EPWP Unit seeks to hold
discussions with National Treasury to determine if financial support can be
offered to Municipalities who do not have funds to provide services
themselves.

The Department of Public Works assisted by the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Construction Industry Development Board have
finalised a National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy for approval. The
emphasis is on factoring in maintenance into our asset management plans and
placing equal importance to it as we do to constructing new facilities. This is
in line with the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa
(AsgiSA) precepts but lends itself to EPWP guidelines on labour-intensive.
Given the maintenance backlog in most of our assets and those managed by the
municipalities, this is a further opportunity to harness the element of public
infrastructure maintenance under the EPWP. The possibilities are endless.

Nationally the Department of Public Works, using its own line function
resources, is partnering the Independent Development Trust (IDT) to roll-out
building maintenance of our assets under EPWP. Work has begun. In addition, the
department is currently undertaking the R20 million, 120 kilometre Nakop Water
Pipeline in the Northern Cape using largely labour intensive methodologies. We
are encouraged.

These and other innovations are necessary to embellish the scope and the
impact of the programme. Between April 2005 and March 2006, the programme
expended R4,7 billion to execute 4318 projects and created 208 898 net number
of job opportunities. About 49% of jobs went to women and 38% to youth against
40% and 30% targets respectively. Yet all these figures are still an
under-representation given the under-reporting currently experienced by the
municipalities, pending the finalisation of the Management Information System.
This attests to the role and the importance of the unison of all our
implementing agents in delivering solid targets and pushing back the frontiers
of poverty in this Age of Hope.

Issued by: Department of Public Works
4 August 2006