T Didiza: Nkangala District Municipality Expanded Public Works Programme
(EPWP) conference

1 November 2007

Programme Director
MEC for Public Works in Mpumalanga, Madala Masuku
Executive Mayor, Inkangala District, Lesetja Dikgale
Executive Mayors from Local Municipalities
Amakhosi
Councillors
Representative from Construction Education and Training Authority (Ceta)
Representative from Absa
Officials of government departments
Ladies and gentleman

I would like to start off by greeting the two hundred and seven learners who
have successfully completed their training in this region over the past three
years. I want to congratulate you on your success and I want to tell you that
you are the embodiment of all that we wish for our people in this country: the
ability to access job opportunities as well as being fully trained in useful
skills.

Programme Director, it is a great honour for me to be invited to this
important function, to gain insight into what is being achieved through
diligent commitment by municipalities like the Nkangala District Municipality.
We were here last year in June to celebrate the latest intake of Vuk'uphile
learners. It is greatly heartening today to come back and realize that this
District Municipality is making great strides in fulfilling our government's
social contract with our people: providing opportunities for a better life for
all.

The successful implementation of the EPWP, just like all government
programmes can only be achieved through partnerships between all spheres of
government as well as the private sector and communities concerned. I see that
the EPWP in this District Municipality is a joint venture with contributions
from the District Municipality, our departments in the province and national,
the Construction Education and Training Authority, and Absa. I want to
congratulate you on this partnership. This is what our country needs if we are
to successfully tackle the challenge of underdevelopment, poverty and lack of
skills.

A lot of effort is being put in ensuring that the EPWP is massified for
maximum impact on the lives of poor people in our country. All the sectors of
the EPWP are being stepped up a gear to ensure that by the end of this first
phase in 2009, more than one million work opportunities would have been created
by this programme. We aim to add value to the lives of as many people as
possible in the four sectors of the EPWP.

Inkangala is proving to be one of the more active participants in our two
year training programme for emerging contractors, Vuk'uphile, with learning
agreements having been signed with more than 207 learners in the last three
years. Vuk'uphile is an integral part of the Expanded Public Works Programme as
it is designed to build capacity among emerging contractors, thus equipping
learners with skills required to deliver EPWP infrastructure building projects.
In doing so Vuk'uphile is helping to fulfil the EPWP's objectives of creating
temporary work opportunities for the unemployed and the skilling of those
workers for long-term job prospects.

Vuk'uphile is providing a mechanism for combining work opportunities with
skills training within the infrastructure development sector. This is critical
because our country is facing a huge infrastructure backlog and skills
shortage. In addition to up-skilling the learner contractors, the project is
spawning employment opportunities for the workers employed by the contractors
themselves. Vuk'uphile is also aligned to the initiative of the Construction
Industry Development Board to set up a national contractor register. This
contractor register is helping in supporting broad-based black economic
empowerment (BBBEE) as it provides a database of companies that should benefit
from preferential procurement initiatives. Learner contractors who enrol for
and graduate through Vuk'uphile qualify for inclusion in the register as they
are in a strong position to tender for larger civil engineering contracts that
are designed with labour-intensive methodologies in mind.

Labour-intensive methodologies are the cornerstone of the Expanded Public
Works Programme, not just here in our country, but world-wide. Last month, our
department, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
and the Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal convened the 12th Regional
Seminar on Labour Intensive Practices. That conference brought together
specialists, researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines.
There were also eight SADEC Ministers whose portfolios include Public
Works.

The main aim of the conference was to explore, at a regional level, ways and
means of fighting this major challenge facing our continent and our global
village, the inability of millions to access work. It is my hope that all the
deliberations that were undertaken at that conference will enable us to scale
up our own labour-intensive programmes in the infrastructure, social and
economic sectors of EPWP. It must also enable us to expand regional
partnerships for infrastructure development, job creation and the development
of our human capital.

Government's commitment to the EPWP is underpinned by budget allocations
that prescribe the objectives of labour intensity and skills development as
central to the delivery of infrastructure, social and economic services. This
year’s original EPWP budget of R15 billion to provinces and municipalities has
since been increased by a further R3 billion allocated to the provinces for the
labour intensive construction and maintenance of access roads.

Further responding to our President's call to expand the scope and impact of
the EPWP, both national and provincial Departments of Public Works this year
launched the EPWP National Youth Service, underpinned by a vision to support
the employment, growth and development of our youth, as well as their ability
to contribute to South Africa's ongoing journey of transformation.

We continue to draw on the ongoing support of the Department of Labour,
which plays a critical role in the EPWP by providing all the training in the
programmes, either directly, or through the various Sector Education and
Training Authorities that have been established. Our experience shows that
skills development is a key component in the effective and efficient use of
labour intensive technologies and that continued emphasis should be placed on
training. With the support of the Construction Industry Development Board
(CIDB), a series of practical manuals have been developed to support the
design, implementation and training in labour intensive construction methods. I
am pleased to note that these have gained considerable international use,
enabling South Africa to contribute to job creation in many parts of the
world.

Ladies and gentlemen

Public works programmes are an important initiative in South Africa, but
also around Africa and the world. They are geared at alleviating unemployment,
and at creating a foothold in the economy for the marginalised, unskilled and
unemployed. Some of the papers at the conference highlighted the global spread
of public works programmes and how different countries are implementing them. I
was pleased that a strong contingent of the South African EPWP staff was there
and that they surely benefited from the creative experiences of other
delegates.

I believe that the presentations made and discussed at the conference will
contribute further to our efforts at job creation and to freeing our people
from the trap of poverty.

I would like to urge Municipalities and other spheres of government not to
neglect the other components of the EPWP as they can be a great source of
poverty alleviation and providing jobs. We need to forever think of ways to
improve our through put, just like an excellent project in the Hibiscus Coast
Municipality Southern KZN whereby community members are benefiting through the
collection of garbage. The programme, called Siyazenzela, is an innovative
scheme that started as an environmental campaign to clean up the area has
become both a job creation scheme and the poverty alleviator. The community get
generous food parcels for bringing in garbage that it collects. The garbage
gets collected at a central municipal vegetable market and it is transported to
be recycled. NgesiZulu singathi bashaya izinyoni ezintathu ngetshe elilodwa to
coin a phrase. There are cleaned up, they get food and provide jobs to those
who recycle. It is a brilliant scheme that shows what can be achieved with more
inventiveness on our part.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Business Trust, and in this
instance, Absa bank for continued support for our endeavours as government.
What has been achieved so far demonstrate your commitment to the development of
our country as well as the true value of partnerships and what they can achieve
if pursued vigorously.

I would like to once again congratulate this District for its diligent
implementation of the EPWP. It is showing the way for other District
Municipalities and public entities that the EPWP programme is national
framework to be implemented by all public entities so as to achieve
developmental outcomes in reducing unemployment and poverty. Well done Nkangala
District Municipality.

I wish you well in your deliberations during this conference.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Public Works
1 November 2007