KZN EPWP Quarterly Steering Committee Meeting

Written by Bheki Khawula

Photos by Neliswa Nhlabathi

On Friday, 19 August 2022, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Public Works held an Expanded Public Works Program (EPWP) quarterly steering committee meeting in Durban, Mayville, Archie Gumede building, uMkhanyakude Conference Room. This provincial steering committee is responsible for job creation mainly pertaining to EPWP matters. Present in the meeting was Department of Public Works as the coordinating department, all other government departments and also municipalities.

Mr Bongani Dlamini (Chief Director KZN EPWP) Narrated the purpose of this meeting as to engage in matters concerning EPWP, to ensure that all set targets are met accordingly, to ensure that the exit strategy is well-understood by all members of the steering committee so that its application can be influenced and implemented all the way from the national level to the ward level of our government. The EPWP exit strategy is necessitated by the fact that beneficiaries are meant to benefit for a limited term and that they must not exit back into poverty when their contracts comes to an end.

Ms Nondumiso Mahlaba (Director KZN EPWP Coordination) made a presentation looking at the KZN province performance and at how all the grants that are allocated for EPWP purposes are spent. She covered 12 departments and 54 local municipalities, amounting to 66 bodies. This detailed how many job opportunities were created and that in that process how much money was spent. Through this very important program, Public Works is able to alleviate poverty to a larger extent. Through the mass job creation Program, EPWP beneficiaries receive training that which makes sure that when their contracts come to an end, they are able to create jobs for themselves through the skills they received during training.

Mr Sduduzo Simelane (Director EPWP National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, based in KZN Province) made a presentation on strategic matters that might have come up out of any engagements at head office at National level. He spoke about the Provincial Steering Committee meeting being a provincial strategic management body for the EPWP in KZN. He said that at a broader level there are national bodies such as the National Coordinating Committee which he spoke about at length. He spoke about the need of the KZN representation from the Coordination Section to regularly attend the meetings of the Coordination Committee. He also spoke about the process of creating the EPWP policy document, mentioning consultative process that will be undertaken country-wide. More interestingly, he also spoke about the draft framework policy for the enhancement of participation of People With Disabilities (PWD).

“The rate of unemployment continues to increase on daily bases due to many factors some of which are out of our control. Be it as it may, Public Works will never shy away from the responsibility of addressing poverty alleviation-related matters.” Said Mr Dlamini. When performance was analysed, it appeared that some bodies are so far failing to meet the set quota of employing PWDs and the above-mentioned framework policy serves to sort out this problem. Mr Dlamini was happy with the turnout of the target audience, their interactiveness and the robust discussion which was pointing to one positive direction of guaranteeing that the delivery of services takes place with speed and efficiency while ensuring that people are taken out of poverty at the same time.

Message from the MEC


 

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