Phase 3 of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP): briefing by Deputy Minister and Department

Public Works and Infrastructure

05 March 2014
Chairperson: Ms M Mabuza (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The Deputy Minister of the Department of Public Works (DPW) gave a detailed feedback on the background, achievements and lessons learnt during Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the EPWP, before outlining what the prospects for the upcoming Phase 3 would be for the next five years. The Cabinet decision of November 2013 had been to move towards the establishment of a Presidential Public Employment Coordination Commission for Public Employment Programmes (PEPs), and the DPW would be playing a major role in this regard. 

Phase 1 of the EPWP had achieved its one million work opportunities target by 2008, a whole year ahead of schedule.   However, this had not made a dent in the unemployment rate, as it had still remained stubbornly high, and worsened from 2008. The EPWP was designed to bridge the gap between the so–called “first” and “second” economies. However, too many expectations had been created for the programme, such as maximising the spread and skilling of all the beneficiaries who were to be promoted into the mainstream economy.

EPWP Phase 2 came into being, setting an ambitious target of 4.5 million work opportunities. This phase was from 2009 to 2014, and the DPW was on track to meet the target by the end of March 2014.  This phase had witnessed new developments, among which were the introduction of the non-state sector, which had two programmes -- the Community Work Programme and the Non-Profit Organisation programme -- and the national, provincial and municipal EPWP Incentive. The Government’s New Growth Path policy (2010) clearly broke with the “first” and “second” economy paradigm, but featured the mainstream economy -- and this had systemic challenges. These challenges included exporting unprocessed, unbeneficiated mineral products from the mines, only for those products to be imported back as high value cell phones, laptops or other materials.  In essence, jobs were being created in China or some other countries where these materials were converted. The country therefore must of necessity move into a new growth path, which would mean changing the way the economy functioned. Phase 3 of the EPWP would then be considered with regard to these systemic changes.

Six key lessons had been gleaned from EPWP Phases 1 and 2 over the past ten years, and were the prime reason for the November 2013 Cabinet decision to establish a Presidential Coordinating Commission for PEPs in the new administration.

• There was often much confusion between both the public and the practitioners as to what the aim of PEP was.  PEP’s development potentially rested in providing three outcomes -- sustainable household livelihoods, skills development and the provision of assets and services.  Every EPWP must involve all these outcomes, but they may not be carried out equally. There would need to be a trade offs. The optimal balance between these three would vary, and increasing one output was thus likely to result in decreases in the others.
  
• A better balance between work opportunity headcounts and other outcomes was needed.  As good as focusing on targets was, the danger was that it could become a number-crunching exercise and other salient issues could get underplayed.  

• There were obvious challenges with infrastructure. Infrastructure was the largest contributor to work opportunities, but the short-term nature of many infrastructure construction projects creates problems because once the construction was done, the jobs were over and so was the participants’ work.

• There was a perception of risk for public bodies taking on EPWP projects. There was concern that labour-intensive methods are slow and the quality is poor.  There was also concern over compliance challenges – reporting and supply chain requirements.   Finally, there were the expectations of participants for full-time employment at completion of projects. This notion must be clarified and communicated to the participants.

• The risk of projects being captured for patronage purposes was detected. There were community accusations that the selection of EPWP participants was hijacked by politicians for patronage purposes. This could undermine key developmental outcomes, community co-ownership, including community oversight of PEP projects, community cohesion and a sense of ownership.

• There was therefore a need for much greater co-ordination between the scale, diversity and innovative nature of SA’s PEP programmes.

With regard to the projects aimed at training and graduation in EPWP Phase 3, even very low-skilled activities in community work programmes would still warrant training, as they needed to be trained as a team or trained to observe basic safety precautions. Even if the training were elementary, it was still important as it would provide them with some basic skills.  The National Youth Service (NYS) was aimed at creating work and training opportunities for the unemployed youth, while addressing the shortage of artisan skills within the built environment. It was also aimed at the involvement of youth in community service delivery, thereby instilling a spirit of patriotism in young South Africans

The EPWP Phase 3 employment target for 2014/15 was projected at 1 075 189, growing progressively each year to the five-year target of six million, which was not provisional and must be met at the end of the phase.  The targets were divided into several sectors, like infrastructure, environment and culture, social, non-profit organisations and community work programmes. The EPWP Phase 3 would focus on increasing the EPWP contribution to development.  This would be achieved by improving the strategic and operational aspects of the EPWP, introducing a greater degree of uniformity and standardization  across the various EPWP programmes through the introduction of universal principles, improving targeting of participants through community involvement, improving the monitoring and evaluation of qualitative aspects, and strengthening the collaboration and synergies among lead departments and other stakeholders.

The key changes that would be made in Phase 3 were that the Presidential Public Employment Coordination Commission would enhance coordination across a range of PEPs, and between PEPs and other developmental initiatives, fostering compliance with core universal principles to be progressively realised, adherence to the EPWP minimum wage and employment conditions under the Ministerial Determination, selection of workers based on a clearly defined process and defined criteria, increased community participation for more visibility and ownership in poor communities, enhancing social cohesion, an increased scope of infrastructure maintenance which provided longer duration work opportunities, and more emphasis on the monitoring and evaluation of assets created, and their impact on communities and beneficiaries.

The Committee commended the presentation and the laudable projects of the EPWP.  A Member said that as good as the PEPs initiatives were to alleviate poverty, there were structural problems that must first be addressed. The issues of transparency, objectivity and a non-political stance when allocating jobs to members of the community, were emphasised. This was essential, so as not to breed division in the community. Another question raised was how oversight would be made on the Presidential Public Employment Coordination Commission, since it would be a presidential committee. A Member asked why some schools had a feeding scheme or security personnel, and others did not?  Another expressed concern over the delay in paying stipends to EPWP participants.  It was also suggested that big companies needed to become more labour-intensive, rather than being reliant on machinery.

 

Meeting report

Mr Jeremy Cronin, Deputy Minister of the DPW, presented the report on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). He described what “Phase 1 & 2” of the programme had entailed and what the prospects for the upcoming “Phase 3” of the EPWP were over the next five years.  The Cabinet decision of November 2013 was to move towards the establishment of a Presidential Public Employment Coordination Commission for Public Employment Programmes (PEPs), and the DPW would be playing a major role in this regard.   The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), which was inaugurated in 1994, had required a coordinated national public works programme to provide the much needed infrastructure, to repair environmental damage, and to link back into the industrial and agricultural base. The RDP was coordinated by a national coordinating agency located in the implementing office of the RDP. Unfortunately, the idea of a national coordinating agency got side-lined with the closing of the RDP Office in 1996.  He reminded the Committee that in the first democratic administration, there was a Minister without a portfolio running an RDP office, and for several reasons it did not work out effectively until 1996.

The government’s focus, however, shifted rapidly to creating formal sector employment through macroeconomic-facilitated growth – the GEAR 1996 envisaged 1 million new formal, largely private sector jobs over five years. Nonetheless, there were important early PEP initiatives, led by the Department of Public Works (DPW), in labour intensive construction, the Department of Water Affairs in Working for Water, which was launched in 1995, and some provincial roads departments, with household-based maintenance of allocated stretches of rural roads. Attributable to these projects, the sustained Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth made a 5% increase in the first decade after 1994, but nonetheless,  structural poverty, inequality and unemployment remained stubbornly high.

At the 2003 Growth and Development Summit, the Government agreed on some interventions to be introduced -- a massive expansion of the public works programme, with a five-year target of 1 million work opportunities. This gave birth to the EPWP Phase 1. The EPWP Phase 1 was between 2004 and 2009. Subsequently the key assumption statements made by politicians, and in policy documents, were that the policies would result in a well-stabilised and well-functioning economic growth in the “first economy,” but were not impacting upon the “second economy” – hence the need for targeted developmental programmes.   The development of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), the Taxi Recapitalization Project and the EPWP were seen as once-off ladders to graduate the “second economy” activities into the “formal economy”.  Phase 1 achieved its 1 million work opportunities target a whole year ahead of time, which was 2008, but this did not make a dent in the unemployment rate.  It still remained stubbornly high, and worsened from 2008.

Encouraged by the success achieved in Phase 1, of creating 1 million work opportunities in four years, and responding to the local job-loss crisis linked to the global economic crisis, EPWP Phase 2 came into being, setting an ambitious 4.5 million work opportunities’ target.  The phase was from 2009-2014 and was still on track to meet the work opportunities’ target by the end of March 2014.  Phase 2 witnessed new developments, among which were the introduction of the non-state sector, which has two programmes, namely the Community Work Programme and the Non-Profit Organisation programme, and the National, Provincial and Municipal EPWP Incentive. The Government’s New Growth Path policy (2010) clearly broke with the “first” and “second” economy paradigm, but featured the mainstream economy -- and this had systemic challenges. These challenges included exporting unprocessed, unbeneficiated mineral products from the mines, only for those products to be imported back as high value cell phones, laptops or other materials.  In essence, jobs were being created in China or some other countries where these materials were converted. The country therefore must of necessity move into a new growth path, which would mean changing the way the economy functioned. Phase 3 of the EPWP would then be considered with regard to these systemic changes.  Despite the challenges on the ground and the chronic unemployment around the world, the effect of the EPWP on the country had produced “a good South African story to be told.”

With the chronic unemployment, even in many developed economies around the world, the scale and innovative achievements of South Africa’s Public Employment Programme (PEPs) have attracted international interest.  However, these achievements have not been sufficiently communicated domestically.  At the recent conference in Cameroon, sizeable interest was indicated by other countries in what was being done in South Africa in terms of public employment programmes.  Latin America is interested in what we are doing on the urban front.  Uniquely, PEPs cut across several sectors, supported through different line departments, provinces and municipalities and had both a rural and urban focus.  India was a country also involved in such a programme.  India has a brilliant public employment programme called the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.  50 million people are said to be enrolled on this scheme each year. However, it is a seasonal scheme which runs for 100 days. It operates in the dead season, when there is so much famine and farmers can not plant. It dealt mainly with rural infrastructure work and maintenance.  EPWP, however, is quite different in that it is both for the rural and urban areas, and is obviously not seasonal.

Furthermore, Working for Water (WfW), Working on Fire and Working for Wetlands, were part of South Africa’s initiatives in pioneering a global PEP and applying it on scale to environmental services.  Based on research by the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and other independent researchers, the WfW programme has possibly saved as much as R400 billion, cleared over 2 million hectares of alien invasive plants, and prevented loss of 71% of grazing. Working on Fire in 2007/2008 saved the forestry industry alone R3.7 billion -- on a budget of only R123 million. It is noteworthy that South Africa is still the only country in the world with a range of PEPs in the social sector – including adult education, early childhood care, school-feeding schemes, school safety and homework supervision programmes, with home-based care programmes being a major response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The EPWP non-state sector programmes, namely the Community Work Programme (CWP) and Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs), work closely with NPOs, which are inclusive of non-governmental organisations, faith based organisations and community based organisations.

One of the innovations in PEPs is reflected in Gauteng Extra School Support. Prior to EPWP’s intervention, the Gauteng Department of Education identified a series of challenges in schools. These were a lack of support for learners on homework due to socio-economic conditions at home, parents’ levels of literacy, a lack of safety at schools, learners targeted by drug dealers, school assets vulnerable to theft and mishandling, and also many learners were not physically or creatively active after school hours.  EPWP responded from 2011 by rolling out homework and sport supervisors on a half day basis, with 8 200 supervisors’ work opportunities at 911 schools. Additionally, there were the safety and security personnel, with 5 052 work opportunities at 1 263 schools on EPWP stipends.

Six key lessons were gleaned from EPWP Phases 1 & 2 over the past ten years, and were the prime reason for the November 2013 Cabinet decision to establish a Presidential Coordinating Commission for PEPs in the new administration.

• Lesson 1: There often was much confusion between both the public and the practitioners as to what the aim of PEP was.  A lot of expectations were loaded on the PEP.  PEP’s development potentially rested in providing three outcomes -- sustainable household livelihoods, skills development and the provision of assets and services.  Every EPWP must involve all these outcomes, but they may not be carried out equally. There would need to be a trade offs. The optimal balance between these three would vary, and increasing one output was thus likely to result in decreases in the others. There were different strengths of different programmes. For example, Working on Fire required skilled work and training, a relatively long term involvement, and excellent graduation prospects, but it produced low numbers (5000 fire-fighters p.a.).  Thankfully, there had not been a single loss of life in the past ten years, and this was because they were well trained. It is significant to note that 32% of the firefighters were women, making this figure the highest statistic in the world. This innovation was quite commendable because of the sense of pride and dignity it develops in the participants. The Community Work Programme involved less training, because it was basically into cleaning up the townships, and because it was not really skilled or in need of much training, it could be massively scaled-up very quickly – 1 000 participants per ward. The community decides on the priority work that must be done.
  
• Lesson 2:  A better balance between work opportunity headcounts and other outcomes was needed.  As good as focusing on targets was, the danger was that it could become a number crunching exercise and other salient issues could get underplayed.  EPWP is determined and committed to the 6 million work opportunities’ target made at the outset, but other important details would not be neglected, otherwise there would massive headcounts, regardless of the services being rendered and the impact made on the participants. Although work opportunity targets were very important, they had to be balanced with other indicators.

• Lesson 3:  There were obvious challenges with infrastructure. Infrastructure is the largest contributor to work opportunities, but the short-term nature of many infrastructure construction projects creates problems because once the construction was done, the jobs were over and the participants’ work was over.  It is envisaged that the average work opportunity duration in infrastructure construction and maintenance EPWPs would be 65 days, so there is a need to place greater emphasis on infrastructure maintenance.  Ongoing local work road maintenance programmes like Zibambele and  Siyatentela have an average work opportunity duration of 108 days.  The other challenge was the reluctance of the private construction sector to use labour-intensive approaches. Consequently, professionals that understand the developmental challenges in the country are needed.  Attention would be paid to suitable appropriate labour-intensive approaches in Phase 3.

• Lesson 4:  There was a perception of risk for public bodies taking on EPWP projects. There was concern that labour-intensive methods are slow and the quality is poor. There is a need include labour-intensive methods in the training curriculum of the engineering profession. Sometimes it could be true that the quality of work done may be poor, but that was if the work was not appropriately done or professionally supervised. Labour intensive methods are being used in China yet their outcome proves that it was not appropriately done.  There was also concern over compliance challenges – reporting and supply chain requirements.   Finally, there were the expectations of participants for full-time employment at completion of project. This notion must be clarified and communicated to the participants. There is a need to develop realistic exit strategies that are linked to the programme, resource these with appropriate training and ensure the participation of the responsible Departments.

• Lesson 5:  The risk of projects being captured for patronage purposes was detected. There were community accusations that the selection of EPWP participants was hijacked by politicians for patronage purposes. This could undermine key developmental outcomes, community co-ownership, including community oversight of PEP projects, community cohesion and a sense of ownership. The role of community based organisations and other NPOs is proving useful in this regard, in both the CWP and in the EPWP NGO sector.
 
• Lesson 6: There is therefore a need for much greater co-ordination between the scale, diversity and innovative nature of SA’s PEP programmes. More work must be done in relation to common branding and a common language is needed.  There was insufficient co-ordination between PEPs and other potentially related-government policies, strategies and initiatives, such as adult education and training, SMME and co-ops development, while sustainable livelihoods and food security programmes must be looked into.

To solve recruitment and selection of local labour discrepancies, the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works stipulated some mandatory terms to be followed in the contracts with sub-contractors.  These were a well advertised public meeting, with the nature of opportunities explained and the job application forms distributed to all present; completed forms must be placed in a sealed box, the steering committee would draw double number of applications required in full view of the meeting, where one list was for the number of opportunities, the other for reserve, and a data base of all applicants, both successful and unsuccessful, would then be kept for future reference.

Phase 3 of the EPWP
Taking account of all the issues in Phase 1& 2, a paradigm shift is therefore needed to pursue a greater coordination across a range of PEPs and other developmental initiatives, training, SMME and coop development.  Better monitoring and evaluation of what happens after participation -- the impact of services and assets created, especially in poor communities and the increase of the scope of infrastructure maintenance – was needed.  The National Development Plan (NDP) called for a significant expansion of the EPWP, which was outlined by two key objectives:

• Contributing to the reduction of unemployment by creating temporary employment which would be responsive to the number of unemployed. The Public Employment Programmes should target the creation of two million work opportunities annually by 2020, or earlier if possible.
• Contributing to the social protection for the unemployed by providing them with income support.

With regard to the projects aimed at training and graduation in EPWP Phase 3, participants remained an important part.   Therefore, even very low-skilled activities in community work programmes would still warrant training, as they needed to be trained as a team or trained to observe basic safety precautions. Even if the training were elementary, it was still important as it would provide them with some basic skills.  Each sector would have to develop its own appropriate training policy and strategy, since the role and importance of training varies considerably from sector to sector and from sub-programme to sub-programme.  Strong collaboration with the National Skills Fund (NSF) and Skills Education and Training Agencies (SETAs) would be continued to source funding for training of participants. Where possible the graduation of EPWP beneficiaries into formal employment would be promoted through various initiatives, including cooperatives and small enterprise development.

The National Youth Service (NYS) was aimed at creating work and training opportunities for the unemployed youth while addressing the shortage of artisan skills within the built environment. It was also aimed at the involvement of youth in community service delivery, thereby instilling a spirit of patriotism in young South Africans. In-house training had also been focused on training artisans, but because of the nature of the work involved, the number would not be proportionately large.  The DPW were not happy that their target of 3 000 participants had not been reached. The Deputy Minister acknowledged that there is a weak internal coordination system between different line departments, and in the DPW and this failed to connect with NYS and EPWP projects. He described the stages needed in implementing the EPWP NYS Phase 3 Initiative. In addition, the NYS programme would continue to focus on training youth in artisan trades in the built environment on projects implemented by the national and provincial Departments of Public Works. It is envisaged that the Phase 3 costs on NDPW projects would continue to be covered from the current 5% allocation on the project funds, but the NSF funds could also be accessed to increase the number of beneficiaries. The estimated NYS training cost is R30 000 per beneficiary.  Instead of the 900 participants that were realised last year, a projected number of 3 600 participants have been targeted for 2014/2015.   

The EPWP Phase 3 employment target for 2014/15 was projected at 1 075 189, growing progressively each year to the five-year target of six million, which was not provisional and must be met at the end of the phase.  The targets were divided into several sectors, like infrastructure, environment and culture, social, non-profit organisations and community work programmes. The EPWP Phase 3 would focus on increasing the EPWP contribution to development.  This would be achieved by improving the strategic and operational aspects of the EPWP, introducing a greater degree of uniformity and standardization  across the various EPWP programmes through the introduction of universal principles, improving targeting of participants through community participation, improving the monitoring and evaluation of qualitative aspects, and strengthening the collaboration and synergies among lead departments and other stakeholders.

Due to the upcoming elections, preparation would be made for the incoming administration to set up the process and consolidate it.  The Presidential Public Employment Coordination Commission (PPECC)  would be presided over by the President or Deputy President. They would meet quarterly, and would consist of relevant ministers,  the nine provincial premiers and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). The Commission should have two major work streams - PEPs and Employment, and PEPs and Sustainable Livelihoods -- with its technical secretariat at the DPW’s current EPWP Branch, working closely with other relevant line department branches.

The key changes that would be made in Phase 3 were that the PPECC would enhance coordination across a range of PEPs, and between PEPs and other developmental initiatives, fostering compliance with core universal principles to be progressively realised, adherence to the EPWP minimum wage and employment conditions under the Ministerial Determination, the selection of workers based on a clearly defined process and defined criteria, increased community participation for more visibility and ownership in poor communities, enhancing social cohesion, increased scope of infrastructure maintenance, which provided longer duration work opportunities, and more emphasis  on the monitoring and evaluation of assets created and their impact on communities and beneficiaries.  Parliament would also have an important monitoring and evaluation role to play.

Discussion
The Chairperson said she appreciated the Deputy Minister’s presentation and the laudable project of EPWP. She commended the efforts of DPW, giving the example of a place she had visited where young women were involved in EPWP programmes, moving from house to house giving HIV/AIDS awareness in the community. These women were not literate, yet they were appropriately informed on the issues on HIV/AIDS. Young boys were also given opportunities to train learners in physical education in schools. The feeding scheme in schools had also been properly organised, where the learners received a variety of food to eat, and not only bread. These efforts should be noted and duly appreciated.     

Ms A Dreyer (DA) equally commended the passion with which the Deputy Minister communicated the EPWP project to the Committee.  As good as the PEPs initiatives were to alleviate poverty, however, it was not the sole solution and that there were structural problems in the formal economy. The deeper underlining problem must be addressed. She illustrated the issues being discussed by the example of Pratley Glues, a family owned business in her community. The particular branch consists of young black youths. One day, she asked one of the local boys what his three main wishes were, to which he replied Job, Job, Job.  In a bid to assist the boy, she went to ask Mr Pratley whether he could employ him. He replied that he would employ the boy, with other ten friends of his, if he could negotiate the terms of employment between himself and the 11 boys. This touched on the formal economy that had to be addressed. She emphasised the need for transparency, objectivity and a non-political stance when allocating jobs to the members of the community. This was essential so that it did not breed division in the community. How would oversight be made on the Presidential Public Employment Coordination Commission (PPECC), since it is a presidential committee?   There is no Portfolio Committee that does oversight over presidential projects.  She hoped that the PEPs would not be removed from Parliamentary Oversight.  Would the PEPs still be under the Department of Public Works or stand as a different entity?  She noted that the National Youth Service had become much politicised. The DPW must ensure that transparency and objectivity is involved in the process of recruitment. As good as a common branding of PEPs sounded, it had been seen in a couple of instances that an outgoing government may start a very successful project, while the incoming government would want to take credit for the project for political reasons or electioneering purposes. This attitude creates huge problems and would create less enthusiasm for starting projects if it became highjacked. A common branding was therefore admirable if it could be effected, regardless of the government or the political party in power.         

Ms N Ngcengwane (ANC) wanted some clarification with regard to the big, private companies who complained that, based on the massive kind of machines used in their companies, they could not employ EPWP participants as their production rate would be reduced. She proposed that the DPW must inform the companies from the starting point that they would have to employ EPWP participants. She recalled an instance when some companies insisted that they would not employ disabled EPWP participants. She asked about alien plants which, in most cases, were grown on privately-owned lands. How does EPWP partner with the land owners in this regard?  The government had allocated funds to some NGOs, but it had been reported that some people had not been properly paid or not paid at all. How did the DPW control the funds given to the NGOs?  With regard to the stipends, it had been observed that the participants in the rural areas were paid less than those in the urban areas. Why was this so? In relation to the homework and sports supervisors, were they only working in the rural areas or they were also available in the townships?  She added that it was good to note that monitoring and evaluation of programmes was being emphasised and implemented. She asked whether incentive grants would still be given to the municipalities.
            
Mr N Magubane (ANC) asked why some schools had a feeding scheme or security personnel, and others did not? Did the issue of feeding have to do with grading? He made particular reference to several areas where the Indian, coloured or the white schools would have a feeding scheme or security personnel, but the black school would not. He insisted that schools of whatever race should be treated equally. He pointed out, on the issue of NGOs and CPOs, that they operated only in urban areas and in townships but were rarely found in the rural areas. Why was this so? He cast some doubts on whether the Monitoring and Evaluation Team were really carrying out their duties effectively. It they truly were, there would have been some obvious reduction in corruption.

The Chairperson permitted Mr J van der Linde (DA) to raise his comments in Afrikaans, asserting that he was more comfortable speaking in Afrikaans than in English.  He asked questions that addressed issues of mismanagement of funds, the selection of workers on clearly defined criteria, the Community Works Programme and disabled people.

Ms N Madlala (ANC), expressed her concerns on the issue of the stipends paid to the EPWP participants. She pointed out that in some areas, some people had been working for more than three months but were not registered, meaning they were not covered by the labour laws. Another issue was where a contractor that had been issued a tender, then had chosen a sub-contractor and a local councillor became involved -- the workers were suffering, because there was no clear guidance on what would happen. She gave an example of the Committee’s oversight that had been carried out in Middleton, where people were fire-fighters. She commended these efforts by the DPW, but wondered why they could not be extended to the other provinces?   

Responding, the Deputy Minister agreed that the PEPs were not “silver bullets,” but he corrected the notion that it was a temporary thing and would not necessarily alleviate poverty. He insisted that it may not be in all areas, nonetheless in most places where PEPs were in existence, cogent, significant developments and interventions were being made.  They were one of a number of interventions that would transform the strategic, systemic problems in South Africa.  PEPs also contributed significantly to the measurement of the country’s GDP.  He illustrated his comments with the issue of the encyclopaedia that employed about 30 000 people about three decades ago to conduct research, edit and make its sales. However, the encyclopaedia had since been replaced by Wikipedia, thereby displacing most of the workers.  Furthermore, Wikipedia contains more information, is more accessible and has many other benefits.  Wikipedia’s contribution to GDP may not be measurable, because most of the work would be done voluntarily, signifying that Wikipedia may be an asset, but was not necessarily a job creator. It was important to note therefore that what many people were doing, especially in poor communities in South Africa, may be informal voluntary work that did not pay much, but it added significantly to the community. When the Growth and Development summit on Phase 1 was launched, the understanding was that there would be an EPWP process, with participants paid less than they would have earned if they were in formal employment.  It was good that the support of the unions was still in place with regard to the PEPs, because the danger of not having the support of the union was that municipalities may be tempted to say that they were no longer interested in the services of formal sector employees.

On the PPECC, he agreed that it may be a problem for there to be Parliamentary oversight of PEPs.  However, Parliament also had to develop strategies to meet the challenge of monitoring and oversight in the Phase 3 implementation of the EPWP.  Since the DPW would still be the secretariat for the PPECC, this Portfolio Committee would still remain the prime committee for reporting on the activities of PEPs. With regard to the common branding, the DPW was not interested in removing the present branding of WfW or the other initiatives.   However, a common sense of “family name” was needed, because EPWP was problematic -- people thought that all projects executed by the EPWP fell under the DPW. It was therefore necessary to remove this confusion, but the individual personality of each project would be maintained, despite the common branding. The disability issue had not been effectively resolved. There was a programme called the Disability Programme, however, which gave stipends to disabled people and it paid more than the R65 per day, as was given to other EPWP participants. Workshops had been organised at one time or the other for disabled people, although it might be unrealistic to expect a high percentage of disabled people to be absorbed into the system.

On the alien invasive vegetation, he agreed that most of the alien plants grew on private lands, and in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), the private land owner was legally bound at the owner’s cost, to remove the alien plants. There was therefore a nice partnership between WfW and private property owners, as many of them were interested in seeing the invasion gone and improving the environment as a whole. The funding was also assisted through private owners.  However, alien vegetation also existed on public lands, like nature reserves and mountainous areas. He conceded that the Department needed to be stricter on the execution of the NEMA Act in this regard.

In response to the question on the NPOs implementing a project where people did not get paid, or there were problems of one kind or the other, he said that even if this occurs, it may be an error with a line department, or the DPW or the NPOs channelling the funds towards another project.  Proper monitoring and evaluation just needs to be intensified.  

With regard to the stipends, the DPW did not want to set an upper or lower limit, but wanted to allow flexibility, especially with situations where very technical work was being conducted -- like the fire fighters -- which required a lot of morale and the participants may be on a project for as long as seven years.  They were not paid grade salaries, but were paid reasonably well.  

Presently the sports initiative is only in Gauteng and the Free State, but hopefully would kick off soon in other provinces.

The feeding issue had to with the Education Department and not DPW.   However, there is an opportunity for localised and EPWP type of work which could create local jobs and a local sense of responsibility for the community.      

The Chairperson said that recently in Limpopo, better procedures and standardised rules had been put in place to give the learners decent and well balanced feeding, unlike what was previously obtainable. She added that better things were happening in the communities.
 
Mr Cronin said that these new initiatives could create EPWP participation in the community and provide local jobs, instead of everything being supplied by the big agro companies, or bread baked by the same big bakeries.

Ms Kelebogile Sethubelo, Chief Director: EPWP Operations, said that on the issue of branding, guidelines had been provided to public bodies. Most of them had complied with these guidelines. In terms of sports and caregivers, the provinces were already coming on board and were spread across rural and urban areas.  However, schools that have not had previous opportunity were prioritized. Evidenced by research, much of the support would be given to the Grade Threes.  EPWP had been working with the Department of Sport and Recreation around mass participation in sport.  

With regard to the feeding programme, feeding of schools was according to quintiles, which meant that not all schools would be fed -- it depended solely on the quintile level and the subsidy received. She agreed with the Chairperson that menus had been provided to the schools, which they had been mandated to comply with. Currently, the DPW was dealing with flaws that hindered the NPOs from paying the participants when they should, although this issue involved only a small percentage of the NPOs.

Mr Ignatius Ariyo, Chief Director: EPWP Infrastructure Sector, said that with the NYS, a clear selection process was put in place. A local advert would be placed, for instance, for Grade 12s in the area where the project would be, and an assessment would be conducted for them on mathematics and English language. In terms of the exit strategy for the NYS, there were three strands: the first is that they would be given further training, by linking them up to a college that would facilitate better training for them; the second would be to include them in artisan programmes, where funding came from the National Skills Fund; and the third strand would be to link them up with the contractors, as some of the contractors retain the learners on the job, while some of the graduants were pushed into SMMEs. These three strands are effectively monitored. The present target is 15%.  Presently, the EPWP gives the contractors guidelines to follow with EPWP projects and these guidelines are duly monitored. On the branding, EPWP contracts were co-branded with whoever was a part of the project.    
 
The Chairperson gave examples of the provinces she had visited recently where she witnessed the laudable projects carried out by EPWP.  The numerous impacts that the EPWP was having on the community and on the lives of the people were acknowledged and appreciated. She wished the Deputy Minister and the DG of the DPW good luck on the EPWP Phase 3.

The meeting was adjourned.
 

Present

  • We don't have attendance info for this committee meeting

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: