Johannesburg - Unemployed Gauteng residents will soon benefit from the creation of thousands of job opportunities through various roads, construction and small industries programmes.
"By investing in economic and social infrastructure, we will create jobs while improving the development of the Gauteng City Region and our communities," Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said during the State of the Province Address, delivered in the Provincial Legislature on Monday.
The Premier announced that a new infrastructure programme would create at least 130 000 jobs this year, involving the construction and maintenance of education and health infrastructure.
Through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) the province will create over 175 000 work opportunities of 100 days each, as well as over 88 000 full-time equivalents, targeting one individual per poor household.
Mokonyane reported that the community works programme would generate at least 6 000 jobs in six sites in Metsweding, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, with 40 percent of the jobs reserved for young people.
Roads construction and maintenance programmes - which include the expansion of the R55 between Tshwane and Midrand and the K15 in Johannesburg - will create over 5 000 jobs.
Other key infrastructure projects that will be driven in partnership with the private sector include the William Nicol (K46) extension between Fourways and the N14, Pinehaven Interchange (P126) and Adcock Road (K15 phase 3), as well as the renovation of Sebokeng, Kalafong, Jubilee, Yusuf Dadoo and OR Tambo memorial hospitals.
A further 200 jobs will be created through the development of the Driver Licence Training Centre in Kliptown, as well as the construction of taxi ranks in Bophelong and Zandspruit.
This - in addition to the establishment of three freight logistics hubs in Rosslyn, the West Rand and at the OR Tambo International Airport, as well as the tourism sector - will see a future creation of about 15 000 jobs.
"Our plan is to continue to transform the Gauteng economy into a diversified and modern economy," Mokonyane said.
The key targets for these job opportunities will be women and youth. "We will pay attention to improving women's access to job opportunities. By the end of the current financial year, over 34 000 women will have benefited from the Expanded Public Works Programme," the Premier said.
Focusing on the youth, the Premier said the youth employability programme would target over 2 000 post-matric learners, providing support, training and placement in both private and public sector jobs, while the National Youth Service would equip some 4 000 young people with skills to help them gain entry into the workplace.
