Looming jobs bloodbath in eThekwini sparks debate on reform of EPWP

A looming jobs bloodbath in the eThekwini Expanded Public Works Employment Programme (EPWP) due to a reduction of R42m in the incentive grant from the department of public works and infrastructure has drawn attention to the need for reform. 

The MEC for public works and infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal says the department will look into creating a sustainable pathway to permanent employment through skills transfer and certification for EPWP beneficiaries. 

The EPWP aims to reduce unemployment and provide short-term income relief for the previously disadvantaged and unemployed, however beneficiaries are “stuck in the cycle of EPWP and never move forward; that's the other challenge we need to address”, MEC Martin Meyer said. 

Instead of poverty reprieve for a few months, Meyer believes an outcomes-based programme for sustainability for beneficiary livelihoods beyond their contracts is long overdue.

“There should be some form of training. If you are employed at a building site we should be training you to be a bricklayer and give you a certificate so when you leave you have something that can help you get a job with better pay. [This way] we can help people pull themselves out of poverty,” he explained.

The programme has come under the spotlight in eThekwini municipality after an announcement that the municipality will receive an R18.79m incentive grant from the department of public works and infrastructure, a reduction of R42m from the previous year leading to almost 3,000 workers being affected.

Meyer said a bigger problem is that when contracts expire, beneficiaries often go back to poverty. 

“The EPWP is a form of a grant in a way, because beneficiaries are paid below minimum wage — government has permission to pay below minimum wage, they do it for four, six, eight months, however long the contract is, and then they go straight back to the conditions they lived in because the money is not enough to pull them out of their situation,” he explained. 

The workers whose employment contracts are being terminated disrupted service delivery across eThekwini last week in protest.

The municipality said while the developments were beyond its control, efforts are under way to explore solutions to fully resuscitate the EPWP, including engaging the National Treasury. 

The programme, however, comes with other administrative challenges for the newly appointed MEC.

“There is a perception of corruption, where people say councillors or officials take bribes to hand out EPWP work, or where people say they have to sleep with a councillor to get work. Then there is a huge problem with ghost workers, where workers are registered, grants are paid but there is no such person.”

“And there is a severe lack of supervision of EPWP workers: you see people lying all day under a tree because there is no supervisor,” he said.

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