Parliament - Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge says his department has all systems in place to deliver 500 000 jobs by the end of this year through the second phase of the Expanded Public Works Programme.
"This phase is able to deliver because we have the systems for delivery in place. A monitoring and evaluation element will be added to the system to ensure responsiveness of the department," the minister said during his Budget Vote on Wednesday.
He said the second phase of the EPWP was committed to increase its target to create four million work opportunities for the unemployed by 2014, starting with an immediate target of creating 500 000 work opportunities in the first nine months of its implementation by December this year.
He said as the plan is rolled out, the department shall have the necessary research capacity built into this system, not only for regular report-backs but also to ensure that best-practice models are recorded so that further success can be ensured.
"In addition, we want to ensure that where blockages exist, they are identified and improvement strategies implemented swiftly to ensure that the people benefit as soon as possible," the minister said.
The four million job opportunities envisaged under the programme is a conservative estimate, he said.
"Our country is rolling out the biggest infrastructure development programme in the developing world, so the infrastructure sector of the Programme is again positioned to contribute more jobs, in excess of 2.3 million, followed by the environment and culture sector at 1.1 million and the social and the Non-Government sectors together yielding more than 1.3 million jobs.
"We are certain these figures are achievable given what we have in our plans," the minister said.
To facilitate implementation of the programme, protocol agreements with clear targets for each province and municipality clarifying their contributions towards the creation of the four million work opportunities will be signed with all premiers and mayors.
According to the minister, every year, the department manages hundreds of construction-related projects of varying values and sizes, ranging from simple repairs and maintenance to multi million rand capital works projects.
This is the portfolio that as a matter of policy will be regarded, and treated as potential EPWP labour-intensive projects, according to Minister Doidge.
In this financial year, the department is managing an allocation of R5.2 billion as part of this mandate.
"We shall continue with the skills development and job creation elements of our strategy, in our haste to beat unemployment and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2014," he said.
