Last week Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, announced the Department of Local Government will roll out a R50 million support programme in all the Western Cape municipalities in the coming months.
In his address during the State of the Province Address debate, he said: “The Department of Local Government is rolling out a R50 million project where we will support existing and new EPWP (Expanded Public Works Programme) projects in our municipalities throughout the province. In this manner we are putting food on the table of those who need it most.”
Bredell said this investment will also stimulating entrepreneurship and skills development in the affected communities. The EPWP projects, such as cleaning up of public spaces, community safety and alien clearing in river courses will contribute towards making towns more attractive for investment and future job creation.
According to Bredell, all 24 local municipalities and the metro in the province have submitted business plans and the Department of Local Government will transfer the funds to municipalities from the beginning of March. It is estimated that 3 247 short term jobs will be created because of this investment.
This project also makes provision for the district municipalities of the West Coast, Cape Winelands, Overberg, Garden Route and Central Karoo to play a supporting role with administration, monitoring and reporting on the individual projects. Each district municipality will receive R200 000 to fulfil this role.
According to Marius Wüst, Executive Director: Engineering Services at Drakenstein Municipality, any unemployed person who is also a South African citizen and resides in the Drakenstein municipal area can register on Drakenstein Municipality’s EPWP jobseeker database.
This registration is open throughout the year and registration forms are available at the municipality’s offices at the Paarl Civic Centre, Market Street (Paarl), Wellington customer care centre, Mbekweni customer care centre, Paarl East housing offices and Paarl East Thusong centre.
The application forms are available from these locations from 08:00 to 16:00. Applicants must sign and submit the hard copy application form as well as provide a certified copy of their ID, proof of their residential address, and an indication of their skills and experience.
“The municipality also invites unemployed people with disabilities to register on our database and indicate the nature of their disability on the application form,” Wüst concluded. “Applicants from the database are selected based on the location of the project, and prioritised in terms of the skills required and how long people have been registered. The duration of contracts depends on the project.
