The improved public awareness on EPWP is attributed to the value add of the programme in the daily lives of our communities, Minister of Public Works Mr. TW Nxesi says.
The improved public awareness on the Government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) – a flagship programme to fight poverty and unemployment through the provision of short to medium term work and training opportunities is as a result of the value add that the programme is having in our communities, the Minister of Public Works Mr. TW Nxesi said today (Sunday 19 April 2015).
The Labour Market Dynamics for South Africa 2014 report which was delivered by Statistician-General Mr. Pali Lehohla last week (Wednesday 14 April 2015) states that the awareness about the EPWP and other government job creation programmes increased from 42,8% to 52,0% in 2014.
“The EPWP Phase 3 has absorbed the element of public participation, community development as well as social cohesion and integration. This means that EPWP projects and programmes are no longer limited to the Government’s fight against poverty and unemployment through the creation of short to medium term work and training opportunities but these programmes are also intrinsic in the development and unity of our people,” Minister Nxesi said.
“This means” he says “the public now plays a role in working with Government to identify EPWP projects and programmes that can improve their lives, develop their communities and indeed unite them.”
The Deputy Minister of Public Works Mr. Jeremy Cronin pointed to a range of EPWP projects and programmes in the four sectors that EPWP is operating in that are contributing to this positive community awareness of the programme.
“For instance EPWP Home Community Based Care (HCBC) is anchored in our communities. The EPWP participants who are working in these programmes are providing hundreds of thousands of our children who are coming from poor communities with daily meals either at schools or at community centres across the country,” he said.
Deputy Minister Cronin pointed out that other hundreds of thousands of HIV positive people and the elderly community members across the country were also benefiting from the Government’s EPWP.
“These community members are visited at their homes by community care givers (EPWP participant) who help them with their medications and their overall health care,” he stated.
The Deputy Minister also spoke about the involvement of over a thousand of EPWP Working on Fire firefighters who braved the recent multiple fires in the Western Town as another example of EPWP’s contribution to the development of our communities.
“These EPWP firefighters were able to unify our nation. Community members from Western Cape and across the country rallied behind them in the daunting and dangerous task to extinguish those fires. As a nation we remain proud of the work they did,” Mr. Cronin added.
The EPWP Working on Fire Programme is implemented by the National Department of Environmental Affairs.
The Labour Market Dynamics for South Africa 2014 report states that in 2014, seven out of ten of those who participated in the EPWP and other government job creation programmes were employed, up from 56,9% in 2014.
“This is what we mean when we say that EPWP can lead towards the provision of sustainable employment for those who are involved in it,” the Deputy Minister Cronin adds.
Between 2011 and 2014, the proportion of those who participated in these programmes and who were employed in Tertiary industries increased from 58,1% to 75,1%. The proportion of those persons employed in low-skilled occupations also increased from 51,1% to 72,4% over the period. Four out of every five participants who were employed had a formal sector job – a trend that has been continuing since 2011.
The EPWP Deputy Director General (DDG) Mr. Stanley Henderson said that: “It is all the EPWP participants throughout the country make this programme a success. Our communities are today aware of EPWP and its objective of providing work opportunities and income support to poor and unemployed people through the labour-intensive delivery of public and community assets, thereby contributing to development because of these EPWP foot soldiers. We thank each and every EPWP staff member and our participants for working tirelessly to improve our programmes,”
Mr. Lehohla’s report reveals that women are more likely to participate in these Government Public Employment Programmes (PEPs), with the share of women among those who participated increasing from 59,3% in 2011 to 63,1% in 2014” the reports states.
The report further states that in both 2011 and 2014, participation in the EPWP was dominated by persons with an educational qualification lower than matric (65,6% and 69,9%). In 2014, Eastern Cape accounted for 22,7% of those who participated in these programmes, followed by Gauteng (17,0%) and KwaZulu-Natal (14,9%). END
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