Public Works and Infrastructure Minister, Dean Macpherson, believes that urgent reform is needed for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to provide a sustainable pathway to permanent employment.

This follows the ongoing protest action by former EPWP employees in Ethekwini, KwaZulu-Natal.

The Minister has condemned any violence or damage to public property during the protests, particularly as it has halted key municipal service delivery such as the removal of waste which creates a health hazard.

‘The EPWP program was always designed to be a short-term program to give recipients work experience and training in order for them to find permanent employment,’ Macpherson said, adding that due to the stubbornly high unemployment rate in South Africa, many have grown dependent on the program, having been employed as an EPWP worker for many years.

‘As mentioned during the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure budget speech last week, it is therefore imperative that the EPWP program be re-imagined to
become skills outcomes-based which leads to South Africans climbing up the opportunity ladder, rather than being stuck in EPWP for years on end,’ he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Macpherson looks forward to working with all stakeholders in the coming months to look at a better outcome for recipients nationwide.

The Expanded Public Works Programme is one of the government’s strategies to alleviate poverty through the creation of work opportunities using labour-intensive methods. The programme is implemented in four sectors namely: infrastructure, social, environment and culture, and non-state.

All spheres of government and state-owned entities are expected to implement the programme.

The EPWP participants (beneficiaries) work on different projects such as the Community Work Programme (CWP), Early Childhood Development Programmes, Home Community Based Care Programmes, Extra School Support Programmes, Working on Fire, Working for Water and roads maintenance projects.

Since its inception on 01 April 2004
to 31 March 2022, more than 13 million work opportunities have been created in the EPWP space across all spheres of government.

Source: South African Government News Agency