Durban — The eThekwini Municipality is “resuscitating” the crisis-plagued Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), giving a lifeline to thousands of job seekers in the city amid the surging unemployment rate besetting the country.
During a media briefing on Sunday, eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba said he was “pleased” that the council had “given us the greenlight to resuscitate the programme”.
This comes months after the City said it would devise a strategy to revive the programme after announcing that it was pulling the plug on the programme in July owing to a lack of funding from the Department of Public Works.
The budget for the programme has been drastically slashed by more than R42 million to R18m.
Announcing the decision, Xaba said: “It is important to indicate that apart from the budget cut by the Department of Public Works by over R42m, this programme deviated from its policy objectives and conditions.
“As we are embarking on a new recruitment drive this month, we will be using this opportunity to also regularise the programme.”
The budget cut would lead to a drop in intakes in the programme that previously had 4000 participants, said Xaba.
“After the Department of Public Works reduced the budget to R18m, the City reprioritised funding to top up this amount. As a result, for the 2024/25 financial year, the budget permits us to recruit 1276 participants. Previously, the programme had more than 4000 participants,” Xaba said.
In line with the government’s age policy for recruitment, applicants should be between the ages of 18 and 35.
“We want to assure the people of eThekwini that we will continue to explore innovative ways of ensuring the programme serves its purpose of equipping young people with skills that are relevant to the job market.”
The programme – launched in 2004 during former president Thabo Mbeki’s tenure – was allegedly riddled with controversies, including jobs-for-pals and nepotism allegations.
Reacting to the council’s decision, Xolani Shinga, deputy secretary of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) in KZN, said they take the decision “with a pinch of salt”.
“They said they’re reviving the programme, but they will still not absorb these workers full-time. We want the EPWP workers to be sufficiently skilled and be employed full-time by the City.
“The City has money, but they don’t want to employ them permanently. We take this decision with a pinch of salt as Samwu, but we will continue to monitor the situation closely,” said Shinga.
For months now, the municipality, which has been locked in a bitter battle with the unions, including Samwu, and the affected workers, announced that the programme was ending in July owing to reduced funding from the Department of Public Works.
Up in arms, the unions representing workers, held a series of marches to the Durban City Hall, the administrative seat of the municipality, to voice their grievances.
The City stuck to its guns, telling the fuming unions and workers that it had no money to bankroll the programme, kicking the can to the Department of Public Works, saying the termination of employment contracts was due to the department cutting the budget for the programme.
The workers, joined by their unions, upped the ante, storming a council meeting in July and blocking the gates to municipal depots in Isipingo and uMlazi, among others.
Smaller parties in the council, African People First (APF) and African Democratic Change, joined the battle, taking the side of the workers and filing a motion to block the termination of employment for EPWP workers.
ActionSA councillor Zwakele Mncwango has repeatedly called for the insourcing of municipal workers, including security guards and EPWP workers.
The City – which boasted a budget of R67 billion for the 2024/25 financial year – has maintained that it did not have the funds to absorb these workers.
The programme was launched in an attempt to create job opportunities and skills development amid the rising unemployment rate among young people.
Meanwhile, in a bid to counter the nagging water challenges plaguing the city, Xaba said the municipality would be implementing water infrastructure projects. Among them was the two-year R1.2bn Southern Aqueduct project that will improve water supply in southern areas such as uMlazi, Folweni, Chatsworth and Adams.
The commissioning of the new Northern Aqueduct to improve water supply in northern areas such as Phoenix, Ntuzuma, Inanda and uThongathi has been delayed.
“We were supposed to commission this new pipeline by the end of August. However, we have decided to delay this process until we overcome the current challenge of reduced water volumes,” said Xaba.
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