Adopting the EPWP Focus Week
Story by Vusi Shabalala and picture by Sibongile Dlangalala
The official launch and handover of the provincial Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) from the
Department of Transport to the Department of Public Works in KwaZulu-Natal, at a historic event in
Richmond, hosted by the former Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Senzo Edward Mchunu in May 2015
was a significant milestone that began to reshape the provincial government towards changing peoples’
lives for the better. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works will host its 4th annual EPWP Focus
Week as from Monday 16 to 30 November 2020 at identified and confirmed municipalities within the
province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The programme is currently driven by the department’s EPWP Provincial Coordination directorate. The
directorate serves as a nucleus coordinating the entire programme for targeted beneficiaries co-opting
other provincial departments and all municipalities in the province with the inclusion of interested
participating private and non-governmental stakeholders. To date the department has been engulfed
into a tough period of coordinating, assessing, evaluating and managing progress made and stepping
up the pace to achieving socio-economic transformation that would gradually assist in dealing with
poverty but also reach the realisation of the provincial cabinet’s key strategic goals.
Since 2015, the department took a toll order as the programme gained ground, subsequently, positive
results were registered, amid some sporadic barriers which kept emerging and slightly hampered
service delivery. It is a fact that the programme has expanded to all municipalities and equally
acknowledged that there were and still are continued gloomy reports on the programme deficiencies.
The EPWP’s current state of affairs indicates that it is multidisciplinary (involving youth, women and
persons with disabilities) , cross-cutting, has long duration of spanning years rather than months, is
influenced by a wide range of interested citizenry and other cooperatives or stakeholders with different degrees of commitment and adds value to social change. However, it is also a fact that it has risks and
negative impacts to those who suffer its ‘disbenefits’ – such as programme mismanagement, noncompliance and a negative beneficiary or labour turnover, when volunteers or beneficiaries register
unwarranted complaints due to corruption and maladministration.
The time is right and it is now the right time to change the mind-set. The department has quite a huge
staff complement in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is therefore without doubt that we can, given the
space in our hearts, souls and minds, to tell the outside world about the reasons why we exist and why
we have programmes such as EPWP. The intuition of loyalty, commitment, diligence, ownership and
prudence has to kick in. As committed ‘public servants’, there should be no fear to render or deliver a
service to those who need it with pride.
Driven by the assertion above, it becomes clear that the ‘onus’ is now and henceforth, on every Public
Works’ employee to join hands in adopting the “EPWP Focus Week”, which is scheduled to commence
as at Monday 16 to 30 November 2020. During this period, while being seriously considerate of the
effects of Covid-19 pandemic, the department’s EPWP team and its ‘opinion makers’ will be driving a
very hectic but objective schedule across the province with an aim at increasing awareness and equally
garnering the support from the citizenry to understand the reasons, needs and importance of EPWP.
This coming eleven days of hard work will indeed serve as a yardstick that will deliberately assist the
department in paving its destined future to positive and effective demonstration of changing peoples’
lives for the benefit and betterment of the province. Let us adopt the “EPWP Focus Week” now and for
the future.