MPUMALANGA AHEAD OF EPWP JOB CREATION TARGET

Mpumalanga's Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has surged ahead of the provincial target of 10 000 jobs in the 2004/2005 financial year.

By the end of February 2005, the province had already provided 10 725 job opportunities. It is expected that another 2 000 jobs will be created before the end of March 2005.

To date, the province has earmarked more than 500 projects as the main drivers of the provincial EPWP. All of these projects comply with the guiding principles of the EPWP, namely labour-intensiveness, job creation, empowerment of women, youth and the disabled and skills development. No additional budget was allocated for EPWP projects, as they form part of the existing projects and budgets of provincial departments and municipalities.

According to the Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, who acts as the coordinator of the EPWP in the province, there was a tremendous initial response from government departments, with 1 001 prospective projects identified in all sectors. However, not all of them qualified under EPWP guidelines set by the National Department of Public Works, and the number of EPWP projects was decreased to 573.

Environmental sector is top job creator

The Environmental sector is currently the top job creator in the province. The majority of jobs were created through the Department of Agriculture and Land Administration's Landcare and CASP (Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme) projects. This sector created 4 701 jobs.

The second-largest number of jobs was created in the infrastructure sector, through road, clinic and school projects. Here the Department of Education is the lead department through its school projects, which created over 1 400 jobs. In total, the infrastructure sector had created 3 098 jobs by the end of February 2005.

The social sector has created 2 926 jobs through volunteer projects at Voluntary Counselling and Testing centres (VCT's) and Home Community Based Care centres.

Infrastructure sector is leading learnerships

The province's first EPWP learnership is also progressing well. Fifteen learner contractors and 30 learners in the road construction field were selected from more than 3 000 applicants to start on a road contractor learnership of two years. During this period the learners will improve their technical and management skills in road construction under a CETA-appointed training service provider. Mentor engineers, appointed by the National Department of Public Works, are overseeing their progress. The identified learnership projects are the Greater Groblersdal Road (D2975) in Nkangala District, the Fernie Road in Gert Sibande and the Gutshwakop-Luphisi Road in Ehlanzeni Region.

The Nkangala District Council has started on 15 of its 21 learnerships under the Municipal Infrastructure Grant of the Department of Local Government and Housing. The learnerships will create job opportunities for 682 people.

One of the biggest challenges for the province is now to create more jobs in the economic sector and to identify more learnerships. The provincial target for EPWP learnerships in 2005/2006 is 250 learnerships.

Communication with stakeholders improved

The province is also hard at work to ensure the coordination of EPWP projects with all stakeholders and to monitor and evaluate EPWP projects to ensure that they comply with guidelines.

Through the recently created EPWP unit in the Department of Public Works, inspections are carried out at all EPWP projects in the province. This will ensure that the province reaches its targets regarding the number of jobs it would like to create for women, the youth and disabled, as well as its skills development targets. The functioning of the provincial sectoral committees will also be improved during the coming year to ensure accurate reporting and integrated planning.

Good communication with stakeholders has emerged as one of the challenges of the EPWP programme. The Department of Public Work's EPWP unit has organised meetings where provincial departments and municipalities are workshopped on the guidelines for the EPWP. The workshop programme will be stepped up in the coming financial year.

Target increased for 2005/2006

Because of Mpumalanga's good performance in the first year of the Expanded Public Works Programme, the province is confident that it will outperform the 2004/2005 financial year's target. A target of 20 000 job opportunities have been set for the 2005/2006 financial year.

The province is already hard at work on its delivery plan to reach this target. It is expected that EPWP projects built under the Municipal Infrastructure Grant will boost the number of jobs created considerably. Volunteer projects under the Early Child Development Programme of the Department of Education will also be implemented in 2005. Increased job creation through the Economic sector, which deals mainly with SMME development, will also add to the number of jobs created by the province. All sectors are also exploring the creation of cooperatives as potential job creators.

For information about the Mpumalanga Expanded Public Works Programme,

Contact the EPWP unit , Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Tel 013 – 766 6696.