Date: 16/02/05
Source: Department of Public Works
Title: Sigcau: Debate on State of the Nation Address
The Minister of Public works, Ms Stella Sigcau, MP, responds to the President's State of the Nations Address in Parliament
16 February 2005
Madame Speaker
Honourable Members
PREAMBLE
“I am an African
“I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.
“Among us prowl the products of our immoral and amoral past – killers who have no sense of the worth of human life; rapists who have absolute disdain for the women of our country; animals who would seek to benefit from the vulnerability of the children, the disabled and the old; the rapacious who brook no obstacle in their quest for self-enrichment.
“All this I know and know to be true because I am an African!
“The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, Burundi and Algeria bear is a pain I also bear.
“The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a plight that we share.
“The blight on our happiness that derives from this and from our drift to the periphery of the ordering of human affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow of despair.”
(Deputy President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the African National Congress on the occasion of the Adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of the “Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill 1996” on 8 May 1996)
INTRODUCTION
Since 1994 the National Department of Public Works has been called upon to use its competencies including the coordination of public works programmes, to alleviate poverty and create a better life for all.
EXPANDED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME
In May 2004, President Thabo Mbeki committed government to a set of very specific targets for a range of programmes, to ensure progressive progress is made to reach the goal of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014. One of these targets was for the EPWP to create at least one million work opportunities coupled with training within the first five years of the programme.
In the first six months of the programme (up to September 2004), about R1,5 billion was spent to ensure that the EPWP meets its targets in terms of the number of work opportunities created. In its first year at least 75 000 work opportunities were created in the first six months of the financial year, and the programme is on track to create more than 130 000 work opportunities by the end of its first year.
Training programmes and implementation guidelines are in place, and the programme will accelerate to create 300 000 work opportunities per annum by the end of its third year.
The government is in the process of rolling out a sustained and substantial investment in economic and social infrastructure, built with methods with a bias towards labour intensive technologies. In order to facilitate this, we have put in place a number of capacity building measures, including a learnership programme that has been put in place by the Construction SETA for emerging contractors and their supervisory staff to develop the capacity to use labour-intensive methods. To date, 26 provincial departments and municipalities around the country have taken up 950 of these learnerships, and these learners are currently undergoing classroom training and undertaking practical training projects. Each of the learner contractors typically employs 100 workers on their practical training projects. By the end of 2005, there will be 1 500 learners under this particular learnership programme.
This type of learnership programme is a good example of what can be achieved when the various spheres of government work together with the SETA’s and the private sector in an integrated fashion. In this programme, provincial departments and municipalities are supplying training projects for the learner contractors; the National Department of Public Works is funding and appointing mentors for the learners, the National Department of Labour is funding and appointing training providers for the workers employed by the learners; the Construction SETA (CETA) is funding and appointing the training providers for the learners; ABSA Bank is providing the learners with access to credit and bridging finance; and the Independent Development Trust (IDT) is assisting with facilitating community participation in the training projects.
EPWP: CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES FOR 2005/06
The EPWP is an ambitious undertaking, and all the different stakeholders – communities, individuals, local, provincial and national government, public representatives, community and sectoral organisations, parastatals, business and labour – must all play their different and complementary roles to ensure that we are able to reach the target of a million work opportunities within the first five years of the programme.
Our biggest challenge is to mobilise all public bodies to rise to the challenge to implement their infrastructure projects in accordance with the EPWP guidelines. If we can meet this challenge, then we will exceed this target. To address this challenge, we will be improving our communication programme, about the EPWP in partnership with GCIS. This will focus on increasing the understanding of the EPWP among government officials and the general public. We will also be engaging extensively with the provinces and municipalities in particular.
As indicated by the President, there will be a focus on introducing or further strengthening some additional social sector programmes under the EPWP in 2005, particularly in the areas of Early Childhood Development and Home Community Based Care. The rapid expansion of these social sector EPWP programmes is our second major challenge. We will be working with the relevant social sector departments and National Treasury to accelerate the preparatory work which has already started in this regard. The model which we will be promoting is one in which unemployed people enter these areas as EPWP workers on a stipend for an initial two year period, during which they obtain a combination of work experience and SETA-accredited training, and after which they graduate into longer-term employment with a formal qualification.
We will consolidate and where necessary increase, the capacity that we have created in our EPWP unit, so that the unit is well equipped to liaise with all of our stakeholders and to provide support on request to other departments, provinces and municipalities. To this end we have secured the involvement of the private sector through the Business Trust who have pledged financial and human resources to assist departments, provinces and municipalities to implement the EPWP in various ways.
We have also entered into an agreement with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to make international expertise in the use of labour intensive methods available to government bodies participating in the programme. In addition, we have an agreement with the Centre for Public Service Innovation to establish an EPWP learning network, which will promote the expansion of best- practice labour-intensive programmes.
In the infrastructure sector of the programme, we will continue to focus on mobilising all government bodies to adopt labour-intensive methods on their infrastructure projects where technically and economically feasible, and to use the approved tendering guidelines for EPWP projects. We will also continue to work with provinces and municipalities to recruit emerging contractors and supervisory staff onto the special labour-intensive contractor learnership programme which I mentioned earlier, with the aim of having 1500 learners on this programme by the end of the 2005/06 financial year. We will also be engaging with major State Owned Enterprises to assess their potential for contributing to the programme through their infrastructure programmes.
Issued by: Department of Public Works
16 February 2005
Source: Department of Public Works (http://www.publicworks.gov.za)
Source: Department of Public Works
Title: Sigcau: Debate on State of the Nation Address
The Minister of Public works, Ms Stella Sigcau, MP, responds to the President's State of the Nations Address in Parliament
16 February 2005
Madame Speaker
Honourable Members
PREAMBLE
“I am an African
“I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.
“Among us prowl the products of our immoral and amoral past – killers who have no sense of the worth of human life; rapists who have absolute disdain for the women of our country; animals who would seek to benefit from the vulnerability of the children, the disabled and the old; the rapacious who brook no obstacle in their quest for self-enrichment.
“All this I know and know to be true because I am an African!
“The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, Burundi and Algeria bear is a pain I also bear.
“The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a plight that we share.
“The blight on our happiness that derives from this and from our drift to the periphery of the ordering of human affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow of despair.”
(Deputy President Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the African National Congress on the occasion of the Adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of the “Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill 1996” on 8 May 1996)
INTRODUCTION
Since 1994 the National Department of Public Works has been called upon to use its competencies including the coordination of public works programmes, to alleviate poverty and create a better life for all.
EXPANDED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME
In May 2004, President Thabo Mbeki committed government to a set of very specific targets for a range of programmes, to ensure progressive progress is made to reach the goal of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014. One of these targets was for the EPWP to create at least one million work opportunities coupled with training within the first five years of the programme.
In the first six months of the programme (up to September 2004), about R1,5 billion was spent to ensure that the EPWP meets its targets in terms of the number of work opportunities created. In its first year at least 75 000 work opportunities were created in the first six months of the financial year, and the programme is on track to create more than 130 000 work opportunities by the end of its first year.
Training programmes and implementation guidelines are in place, and the programme will accelerate to create 300 000 work opportunities per annum by the end of its third year.
The government is in the process of rolling out a sustained and substantial investment in economic and social infrastructure, built with methods with a bias towards labour intensive technologies. In order to facilitate this, we have put in place a number of capacity building measures, including a learnership programme that has been put in place by the Construction SETA for emerging contractors and their supervisory staff to develop the capacity to use labour-intensive methods. To date, 26 provincial departments and municipalities around the country have taken up 950 of these learnerships, and these learners are currently undergoing classroom training and undertaking practical training projects. Each of the learner contractors typically employs 100 workers on their practical training projects. By the end of 2005, there will be 1 500 learners under this particular learnership programme.
This type of learnership programme is a good example of what can be achieved when the various spheres of government work together with the SETA’s and the private sector in an integrated fashion. In this programme, provincial departments and municipalities are supplying training projects for the learner contractors; the National Department of Public Works is funding and appointing mentors for the learners, the National Department of Labour is funding and appointing training providers for the workers employed by the learners; the Construction SETA (CETA) is funding and appointing the training providers for the learners; ABSA Bank is providing the learners with access to credit and bridging finance; and the Independent Development Trust (IDT) is assisting with facilitating community participation in the training projects.
EPWP: CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES AND OBJECTIVES FOR 2005/06
The EPWP is an ambitious undertaking, and all the different stakeholders – communities, individuals, local, provincial and national government, public representatives, community and sectoral organisations, parastatals, business and labour – must all play their different and complementary roles to ensure that we are able to reach the target of a million work opportunities within the first five years of the programme.
Our biggest challenge is to mobilise all public bodies to rise to the challenge to implement their infrastructure projects in accordance with the EPWP guidelines. If we can meet this challenge, then we will exceed this target. To address this challenge, we will be improving our communication programme, about the EPWP in partnership with GCIS. This will focus on increasing the understanding of the EPWP among government officials and the general public. We will also be engaging extensively with the provinces and municipalities in particular.
As indicated by the President, there will be a focus on introducing or further strengthening some additional social sector programmes under the EPWP in 2005, particularly in the areas of Early Childhood Development and Home Community Based Care. The rapid expansion of these social sector EPWP programmes is our second major challenge. We will be working with the relevant social sector departments and National Treasury to accelerate the preparatory work which has already started in this regard. The model which we will be promoting is one in which unemployed people enter these areas as EPWP workers on a stipend for an initial two year period, during which they obtain a combination of work experience and SETA-accredited training, and after which they graduate into longer-term employment with a formal qualification.
We will consolidate and where necessary increase, the capacity that we have created in our EPWP unit, so that the unit is well equipped to liaise with all of our stakeholders and to provide support on request to other departments, provinces and municipalities. To this end we have secured the involvement of the private sector through the Business Trust who have pledged financial and human resources to assist departments, provinces and municipalities to implement the EPWP in various ways.
We have also entered into an agreement with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to make international expertise in the use of labour intensive methods available to government bodies participating in the programme. In addition, we have an agreement with the Centre for Public Service Innovation to establish an EPWP learning network, which will promote the expansion of best- practice labour-intensive programmes.
In the infrastructure sector of the programme, we will continue to focus on mobilising all government bodies to adopt labour-intensive methods on their infrastructure projects where technically and economically feasible, and to use the approved tendering guidelines for EPWP projects. We will also continue to work with provinces and municipalities to recruit emerging contractors and supervisory staff onto the special labour-intensive contractor learnership programme which I mentioned earlier, with the aim of having 1500 learners on this programme by the end of the 2005/06 financial year. We will also be engaging with major State Owned Enterprises to assess their potential for contributing to the programme through their infrastructure programmes.
Issued by: Department of Public Works
16 February 2005
Source: Department of Public Works (http://www.publicworks.gov.za)
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