Ending contracts of community workers aged 55 and older is 'cruelty', says MK Party's Manyi

MK Party MP Mzwanele Manyi has described the co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) department's decision to terminate the contracts of Community Work Programme (CWP) participants aged 55 and older as “cruelty”, blaming it on the ANC.

The department said last week the decision was influenced by budget cuts from the National Treasury for the 2024/25 financial year.

“This significant budget reduction severely affects the department's ability to sustain the current payment of stipends, training, tools and materials, as well as personal protective clothing for more than 255,000 participants. The department is already overspending, and this threatens the payment of stipends for February and March,” director-general Mbulelo Tshangana said.

“According to National Treasury regulation 9.1.1, the accounting officer of a department must exercise due diligence to prevent and detect unauthorised expenditure, and must implement effective, efficient and transparent financial and risk management processes to achieve this objective.”

However, Manyi — and social media users — have accused the department of discrimination.

“Now that the voting season is over, the ANC fires workers. This is cruelty. Where will people of this age find jobs?” Manyi said.

The programme rolled out in 2008 is a government-funded initiative designed to cushion the poorest of the poor by providing regular low-skilled work opportunities like road maintenance, home and community-based care work, planting trees and maintaining food gardens, and fixing classrooms.

Tshangana said the department has served participants with a one-month notice informing them their contracts would end on January 31 and that final payment will be on January 25.

“The last working month for the affected participants was December, and they should therefore not report for duty in January.

“The department deeply regrets this unfortunate decision and would like to sincerely thank all affected participants for their dedication and contributions to the programme.”

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