The government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), which focuses on skills development and providing temporary work opportunities, is failing to meet its objectives.
This is according to public works and infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson, who is on a Listening Tour to hear about the impact of the programme.
Macpherson, who engaged EPWP beneficiaries and communities in Gqeberha on Monday, told TimesLIVE Premium the programme does not meet its three original objectives of improving skills, opportunity and pay.
“The concept of EPWP was always designed to be a stopgap or short-term social relief opportunity for people while they’re going through a difficult time or trying to find jobs, paying R120 a day which is not even minimum wage,” he said.
“That unfortunately has become permanent employment for many people and it continues the cycle of poverty, in that it is all that people have become accustomed to.”
Macpherson said there were people who have been in the EPWP for up to 10 years. This, he said, meant the programme was not creating the skill opportunities for those people to be able to climb up the opportunity ladder.
“I think that's just the bare-bone facts around the project, and it’s compounded by the cuts in budget.”
The programme’s budget was cut by R700m from R2.9bn in 2023/24 to R2.2bn in 2024/25.
“They promise 4.7-million job opportunities but cut the budget for that, so those two just don't align,” he said about the last ANC administration.
“We clearly need to start thinking about what a public works programme that drives skills, opportunity and better pay looks like. That's what my baseline is.
“It’s how do I try to meet those three objectives, and it's clear in its current format it can't meet those objectives.”
The EPWP was established 20 years ago to create work opportunities for South Africans who are unable to find employment in the formal economy.
Beneficiaries work in the road infrastructure space repairing roads, building bridges, working in waste management and some are involved in early childhood development and community works projects.
I even heard of sex for jobs, which is appalling that you can use government funding to suit your sexual desires.
— Dean Macpherson, public works and infrastructure minister
Macpherson said the programme has not been reviewed since it started in 2004.
So far on his tour, which started in Bethelsdorp in Nelson Mandela Bay, Macpherson said he had heard from EPWP recipients and from the communities they operate in.
“Both groups of people don't feel that it is working in the way that it should.”
Among the complaints was a lack of transparency around how appointments are made, which is further compounded by abuse by councillors, political parties, officials and politicians who use the programme as a form of patronage and jobs for pals.
“I even heard of sex for jobs, which is appalling that you can use government funding to suit your sexual desires.”
He also heard of people who were being excluded on the basis of being members of certain political parties or because of their race.
The other problem is around the NPOs that are funded to implement EPWP projects. Macpherson alleged that some are not registered, others are established a month before they get funding and in some cases they are not known and have never been seen in the communities.
“We don't have all the answers yet, and it's important that I go out and listen to various communities and stakeholders about their experience of EPWP, so that we can put together a programme that meets the three original objectives of improving skills, opportunity and pay,” he said.
He said he will be asking for a report on how the awards were done and other issues raised by communities.
“We will investigate as we go along.”
Macpherson said one of the problems was the EPWP was not administered by the department, but transfers were made to provincial and local governments, and that is where total control is lost and opportunities for corruption open up.
“That's where it starts to become patronage.”
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