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Workers are seen building housing units at a construction site as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown regulations ease in Fleurhof, near Johannesburg, South Africa, October 6, 2020.
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson says they are working to ensure that Expanded Public Works Programme becomes a vehicle for skills transfer and offering recipients a real path to permanent employment.
The minister heard first-hand from EPWP recipients during his countrywide listening tour after taking office about allegations of abuse, exclusion and exploitation by politicians and officials.
Macpherson hosted a Tanzanian delegation in Boksburg on Gauteng’s East Rand.
“We’ve got to make sure that all opportunities are always given out fairly and transparently. And that doesn’t happen at the moment, because they’re located mostly in councillors’ offices and so we want to take it out of that space. The second thing is that people want to be able to use EPWP not just to be able to cut grass and pick up litter. They want to be able to attain skills that they can use in construction programmes. And so, we are having discussions with construction companies and other social partners around what is it that the market is looking for? So that we train people up on site, that they can gain those skills and that companies in those local areas are able to find [hire] them,” says Macpherson.
