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17 September 2008

As part of its commitment to contribute to growth and development, government through the Department of Public Works has since 2004 led the formulation and implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). The EPWP is a government-wide initiative to utilise existing public sector funding in the provision of goods and services including infrastructure, using labour-intensive methods to create job opportunities linked with skills development (i.e. training). Since its inception in 2004, the Programme has to date created in excess of 1 (one) million such opportunities, and countless other benefits, exactly one year ahead of target date of March 2009.

Delivered through the four sectors, namely infrastructure, social, economic and environmental, the impact of the Programme is measured by the legacy it bequeaths to the participants and beneficiaries. The award-winning access roads at Makwane and Maphumulo in Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, respectively, attest to the quality of infrastructure and other communal assets so built for the benefit of poor communities.

At KwaJika Joe informal settlement in the Msunduzi Municipality (KwaZulu-Natal), a sub-programme of EPWP, the Siyazenzela Waste for Food project adopted from Curitiba in Brazil, is part of the environmental sector and it encourages a mutual partnership between the local government and community through a community project which sees households collect waste in exchange for food parcels. The net effect is a clean community and food security for the vulnerable households. Given the success of the EPWP, Cabinet has this year agreed that a Phase 2 of the Programme be considered after 2008/09.

The launch of the National Infrastructure Maintenance Strategy (NIMS) earlier in 2008 for the improvement of the conditions of government-owned buildings will ameliorate public service delivery and compliment the skills development component of the EPWP. National infrastructure maintenance drive of government was in support of both the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) and the national Department of Public Works supported by the provinces has in the past financial year recruited just less than 10 000 youths under the National Youth Service (NYS) to learn artisan skills in the built environment sector. These include bricklaying, carpentry, paving, plastering, plumbing and electrical wiring. Additional youths will be trained this year. Many NYS learners have grown in confidence and were dispersed across a myriad of projects nationally and some were working on essential infrastructure projects such as the Kagiso Community Safety Complex near Krugersdorp and the Waterkloof Air Force Base in Tshwane. Others have indicated their desire to choose construction business as a career.

As part of the Apex Presidential priority projects, the eradication of mud-built and other unsafe school structures, the rehabilitation of unused/under-utilised public buildings as well as the creation of accessibility for the people living with disabilities stand to benefit from this growing skills base. On behalf of the Department of Education, the Department of Public Works, in collaboration with the Independent Development Trust (IDT) who are the implementing agents, have set aside R150 million of their resources for 2007 to 2009 to eradicate more than 52 school buildings across the country which have been badly constructed and/or have dilapidated with time and as result expose the learners and educators to potential safety hazards. The work to this effect has begun in 2007 and the Dalisoka school in the Nyandeni area of Eastern Cape, the Sibahle school at Piet Retief in Mpumalanga and the St. Faith Primary in the Ugu region in KwaZulu-Natal, are among the early beneficiaries. Hundreds more such school buildings have been catered for by the Department of Education in their 2008/11 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

Public Works has prioritised a total of 20 projects worth R386 million from a list of 64 for rehabilitation in 2008/09. The idea is to contribute to the government’s goals of creating suitable habitable settlements, regenerating inner city centres and also bettering office space for public servants, to boost their morale. Other spin-offs include the use of our NYS recruits and the emerging contractors currently incubated in our programmes to undertake renovation work, thereby further intensifying their skills and promoting small and emerging contracting capacity.

As the custodian of government-owned immoveable assets, the Department of Public Works was leading the project to make government buildings compliant to applicable legislation (mainly the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA)) while at the same time obliged to make them accessible to all its citizens including the disabled. Assessment work is in progress and already the scope and cost of work was estimated at an average of R570 000 (five hundred and seventy thousand rand) per building to provide the required access facilities for the disabled such as access ramps, parking, toilets, signage (including Braille) etc. To date 318 buildings had been prioritised in the 2008/09 for implementation, at a cost estimated at R63 million however insufficient budget allocations hamper this effort.

Enquiries:
Lucky Mochalibane
Cell: 082 880 4027

Trodger Thebe
Cell: 082 908 1850

Issued by: Department of Public Works
17 September 2008