The City of Johannesburg would aim to create 150 000 job opportunities over the next five years through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), it said in a statement on Thursday.

The EPWP is in its second phase of implementation since its inception during the 2004/5 financial year and seeks to create jobs for unemployed and unskilled people through programmes and projects to be rolled out across all government entities and departments.

The targeted job opportunities would be created in a number of sectors, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure projects and the green economy.

In the 2011/12 financial year, the city created over 30 732 work opportunities.

During phase 1 of the EPWP, the city had targeted 120 000 opportunities but exceeded the target and created 153 835 job opportunities, with the bulk of jobs created in the infrastructure and economic sector.  

Of these, over 12 129 jobs were created for youth, 8 614 jobs went to women while 198 people living with disabilities were employed. In the next five years, the city aims for 40% of the beneficiaries to be women, 30% youth and 2% people with disabilities.

To encourage further job creation throughout the country, the City of Johannesburg has shared its best practices in the implementation of EPWP with the likes of Emalahleni local municipality, Ehlanzeni district municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, City of Cape Town, City of Ekurhuleni, Ethekwini Metro, City of Tshwane, Westonaria local municipality, Randfontein municipality and Msunduzi municipality.