The City of Cape Town last night hosted the annual EPWP awards ceremony. The event was attended by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, City Manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo, as well as the Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Waste Management, Alderman Grant Twigg.

The EPWP Awards serve to acknowledge the extraordinary effort and contribution made by officials and EPWP participants towards fulfilling the goals, values and mission of the City of Cape Town in the implementation of EPWP for the past five years.

Professionalism, dedication and commitment to best practices, high standards of excellence and service delivery are at the heart of these awards.

Projects that performed favourably against the following criteria were recognised:

• Adherence to the EPWP Phase IV objective and principles

• Duration of work opportunities

• Skills development

• Quality of reporting

• Budget expenditure

• Alignment with service delivery objectives

• Constructive collaboration between directorates

There were also awards for City officials/teams who have made significant contributions to the success of the EPWP programme in Cape Town.

Winners are as follows:

Best EPWP Social Sector Project

Winner: EPWP Park Buddies Project

Best EPWP Infrastructure Project

Winner: EPWP informal settlements janitorial services

Best EPWP Environmental and Culture Project

Winner: EPWP Organic Waste Diversion and Composting Project

Best EPWP Skills Project

This award focuses specifically on skills transfer to beneficiaries

Winner: EPWP Law Enforcement Auxiliary Expansion Programme

Best EPWP Project Implementation Team

This award recognises the exemplary commitment of officials to ensure the continuation of service delivery to community throughout the pandemic.

Winner: City Health

Most Improved Implementer

This award was issued for consistently improving on implementation, reporting and compliance as well as improved success transferring skills to EPWP recruits

Winner: EPWP Women at Work Programme

Best EPWP Support Team

Winner: Industrial Relations

Recognition of Excellence

This award is given for more than five years’ valuable input to EPWP implementation, in accordance with stated objectives, within the City of Cape Town.

Recipient: Regan Melody – Director: Transport Infrastructure Implementation

‘As the Urban Waste Management Directorate, our drive is to change the perception that the EPWP is only for street sweeping. EPWP has a bigger offering and as the City of Cape Town, we are leading the way to skill unemployed residents through this programme. We firmly believe that skills training is critical for the successful implementation of the EPWP programme.

‘I am optimistic and excited to see how the EPWP is enhanced and developed over the next few years as more and more officials and residents see the potential that this programme has to offer,’ said Alderman Twigg.

Source: City Of Cape Town