Durban — The eThekwini Municipality is scrambling to renew the contracts of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) participants that end on Friday.
The matter will come under discussion at the eThekwini Full Council (meeting) on Thursday.
The city wants to get approval to extend the EPWP Projects for a period of three months, from the first of October until funding is found for 2022/23 during the budget adjustment.
City manager Musa Mbhele also has to be authorised to sign the Memorandum of Agreement on behalf of eThekwini Municipality with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) to receive the Incentive Grant (IG) for the 2022/23 financial year.
The city has to find additional funding to supplement the 2022/23 financial year IG received from DPWI.
The eThekwini Municipality’s EPWP programme is part of the approved Integrated Development Plan (IDP) with the main objective of reducing unemployment, providing short-term income relief, as well as providing and facilitating access to training for the previously disadvantaged and the unemployed, enhancing their chances of being successful in securing permanent employment. The EPWP methodology is to expand the current delivery of goods and services to ensure economic growth and ensure development integration across all sectors, said mayor Mxolisi Kaunda on Thursday during an Executive Committee (Exco) meeting.
EThekwini Municipality is one of the biggest contributors to the National Government’s programme of poverty and unemployment reduction through EPWP and has been given a target to create 83 893 work opportunities during the 2019 to 2024 administration.
The EPWP programme currently has 4538 participants under the IG-funded projects, a reduction from 5800. The participants’ stipends are in line with the council resolution dated October 30 2018. Currently, all these participants are on contracts that lapsed at the end of June. The programme will receive an IG of R61 257 00 for the 2022/23 financial year from DPWI.
An Exco report stated that the immediate challenge facing the city was that the grant from the national government did not suffice to sustain the current EPWP programmes. This, therefore, means the city must supplement the budget, as has been the practice during previous years. This is mainly caused by the fact that the number of EPWP participants far exceeds what the grant can afford.
Furthermore, some participants were enrolled on the programme from as (far) back as 2014, therefore creating an expectation of permanent employment.
Kaunda and Mbhele established a task team with the purpose of dealing with the exit strategy, led by Human Capital, using various models such as possible absorption within the city.
Kaunda said these challenges had been compounded by the fact that not enough positions are available. Historically, some of the major issues raised by audit reports were payment irregularities due to non-existence of a formalised payroll with strict control measures.
Kaunda said this matter had been addressed by integrating all EPWP payments on the city’s mainstream payroll system, Payspace. This has been a great achievement in terms of tightening payroll controls.
“The EPWP participants have to come and sign physically at the offices. This has eliminated the notion of ghost workers,” he said.
EThekwini Municipality will receive a R61 257 000 grant from DPWI to fund the below-listed projects for the 2022/23 financial year. The estimated expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year is R262 534 746 hence the council funding required is R201 227 746.
The municipality’s chief financial officer now has the task of identifying savings during the budget adjustment period, in order to sustain the stability of the EPWP Programmes which are aimed at reducing unemployment and poverty.
The IFP Exco member councillor Mdu Nkosi questioned why the report was tabled at such a late stage, stating that officials were not serious about doing their work. Nkosi hoped those taken off the EPWP programme were absorbed in other municipal departments, especially Durban Solid Waste where they were needed the most.
“We cannot glorify people losing their jobs because they rely on what little money they have been receiving,” he said.
DA councillor and Exco member Yogis Govender said the EPWP debacle had been an administrative bungle for many years and the contract extensions were not good business practices.
DA eThekwini caucus leader and Exco member Thabani Mthethwa questioned why the city recruited more people than the amount budgeted for, placing the burden on the ratepayers to cover the shortfall.
ANC eThekwini leader and Exco member Nkosenhle Madlala said the EPWP programme was inherited by the current council from the previous administration. Madlala said the country was experiencing high employment rates and the concern was that people were going to bed hungry.
“The intention was to skill the participants so that they can be available on the job market. If we don’t assist this programme more people will join the unemployment queues and soup kitchens. Spending more money on soup kitchens and unemployment funds will burden the city and country financially,” he said.
Daily News