Cooperative governance is key to improving service delivery, creation of job opportunities and eradication of poverty. The visit by the Minister of Cooperative and Traditional Affairs, Lechesa Tsenoli with MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane to assess the work done on Community Works Programme at different sites within the Nelson Mandela Bay was a confirmation that the City was moving towards the right direction.

The Community Works Programme is a programme under the ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs that seeks to address the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty eradication and inequality. Through this programme government contributes to service delivery gaps, where communities identify projects that cut across the three spheres of government. Communities select people on the basis of their social status to participate in the Community Work Programme (CWP). The participants work within the programme eight days a month with compensation from the CWP.

During the visit the delegation led by Minister Tsenoli visited two CWP sites in Grogro and Uitenhage. The Nelson Mandela Bay CWP site was established in September of the 2012/13 financial year and is currently operational in 18 out of the 65 wards in the Metro. The selection of wards was based on the coverage of the EPWP programme that already exists.

One of the key success factors in the Nelson Mandela Bay site has been the active involvement and support of the municipality which houses the programme in its EPWP office and has made resources available to support it. The Provincial Implementing Agent (PIA) and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s EPWP office jointly implement the programme.

In January 2014, the participation rate at the site was 1 105, which is 10% above the official target of 1 000 participants. Plans are afoot to increase the number of participants and work opportunities in the metro to at least 1 200 in the next financial year. The additional participant allocation will be taken from other sites in the province that have failed to meet their participation rate targets over a period of time.

Due to the Metro being an industrialised urban area, a number of participants who received training through the CWP subsequently exited the programme have found permanent work opportunities. This is seen as a major success. The work conducted in each of the wards boosts community assets, and after the payment of wages, it is the second most important impact of the programme.

Key activities undertaken include:

• Working on schools in all the wards. The schools provide materials such as paint and petrol for the lawnmowers, and the CWP provides the labour. The physical environment at all the schools has greatly improved and there are reports from school principals who have benefitted applauding the CWP for the work carried out. Mlungisi High School, Enqeleni Senior Primary School, Gertrude Shope School and Lusindiso Pre-School are examples of educational facilities that have benefitted from the CWP with some having been cleaned and others renovated (painted) by participants.
• Cleaning of clinics and hospital, for example, the Motherwell Community Health Centre as well as the KwaZakhele Day Hospital and Clinic have been recipients of CWP services.
• Establishment and maintenance of small agricultural gardens and doing landscaping at some schools, crèches, hospitals and clinics.
• Maintenance of Parks
• In Ward 19 there is a soup kitchen run by the CWP. This kitchen is in a house next door to the clinic. CWP-enrolled ladies provide food for the patients attending the clinic to enable them to take their medication. The CWP does not provide any inputs to the kitchen, apart from the vegetables participants cultivate in the clinic food garden. This is supplemented from time to time with donations of food from local suppliers.
• In 2013 there was a fire and a flood in the Metro; in both instances the CWP was called upon to assist. Participants assisted by helping families salvage what they could from their devastated homes. They also assisted with handing out of food and blankets to the families who lost their homes and were put up in community halls.
• Disaster management is an area which has great potential for the CWP participants. In conjunction with disaster management of the municipality participants could be trained in disaster prevention and management, and conduct community awareness campaigns.
• Renovation and repairs to a house in Ward 45 belonging to an elderly lady. This is another “sub-site” that has been identified for the Minister’s visit. The house was in a dilapidated state and needed to be renovated and safety features installed. The CWP has carried out repairs and decorated the house and provided some basic furniture, making it habitable again. The house show-cases what can be done by the CWP, and it now stands out, very prominently, from the neighbouring houses, many of which also belong to elderly community members.
• Renovations and repairs to a house belonging to orphaned children in Ward 18. CWP participants painted the inside and outside walls of the house, reinstalled roof tiles that had fallen off and facilitated legal electricity connections.
• Another area of work is waste management, in particular through the cleaning of public facilities and illegal dumpsites. It is evident that the need in the area is great.
• Fourteen brush cutters were purchased and participants trained on their use. This has been hugely successful and now the CWP is able to cut the grass at schools, clinics, crèches etc. The challenge is that there is only one brush cutter per ward so progress is slow.
• The CWP took up the matter of informal settlement dwellers occupying private land and facilitated the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ensuring that the people receive government services while the issue of the land and their possible relocation is being addressed.

The CWP in Nelson Mandela Bay is not without challenges. The majority of these are not unique to the site but are found in other sites across the country as well.

These are outlined below and mechanisms for addressing them are also indicated:

Challenges	How they are being / have been addressed
Reduced training budget in the 2013/14 financial year owing to 2 factors: 1) the fact that the EC province (and the NMB site) exceeded their work opportunity target during 2012/13 thus making it necessary to move funds from the non-wage budget allocation to the wage budget in order to pay the larger number of enrolled participants and 2) the fact that 2012/13 invoices for training were submitted too late for payment during the 2012/13 financial year and had to be paid out of the 2013/14 budget allocation.	Prioritisation of critical training, for example, that of supervisors and that relating to safety at work. Insistence on most non-wage procurement to be done by the end of January so that invoices can be paid during the financial year and to prevent under-expenditure. This is critical, particularly considering the transition to a revised model of working with Implementing Agents taking effect in 2014/15. Training opportunities from other sources, e.g. EPWP, LGSETA and sector departments explored
Less than optimal functioning of the NMB Reference Committee. A weak Reference Committee means diminished expression of community and other stakeholder voices in the CWP.	Reference Committee training undertaken by DCoG. Need for continued monitoring of Reference Committee functioning levels and timely implementation of interventions re
High participant turnover rate and poor recording of where participants go when they leave the CWP. Although it is good for CWP participants to “graduate” from the CWP and be absorbed by the regular economy, it cannot always be demonstrated that participants who exit the CWP do so because they have obtained a better employment opportunity.	Maintaining participation levels slightly above the target and keeping a waiting list help ensure that when participants leave, they are replaced within a short space of time. Implementing Agents have been asked to keep records of where participants go when they leave the CWP. With effect from 2014/15, this requirement is being built into their contracts. This will assist the programme demonstrate the extent to which the CWP prepares participants for the world of work and enhances their employability (assuming a link can be established between their participation in the CWP and their new opportunities).

Despite the challenges, the Nelson Mandela Metro CWP site continues to make a difference not only in the lives of participants by providing work opportunities and predictable income in the form of a monthly wage that helps them acquire basic needs, it also contributes to the provision of critical community services. The active involvement of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and the Eastern Cape Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs are key success factors for the site.