President Jacob Zuma says some six-million jobs have been created through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) since 2004 and that government would target the creation of another six-million employment opportunities under Phase 3 of the EPWP over the next five years.

Building on the successes of the EPWP over the past ten years, Zuma said Phase 3 of the programme would place increasing emphasis not only on reaching work opportunity targets, but also on paying greater attention to the quality of the services that were provided and the new assets created, such as schools, clinics and multipurpose centres.

“We also want to place greater emphasis on the training received by the participants in the course of their involvement, so that they are empowered to go on to formal employment, or to setting up their own small, medium-sized or microenterprises and cooperatives.

“We are also putting greater emphasis on community participation in and ownership of the programme,” he said at the launch of the latest phase of the EPWP in the Eastern Cape, on Friday.

Government would further ensure improved coordination and integration between public employment programmes within and across different sectors, overseen by the Presidential Public Employment Inter-Ministerial Committee.

“In designing, planning and implementing the programmes, there must be coordination, integration, synergy, cooperation and coherence between all spheres of government, departments, public bodies, programmes and projects,” Zuma commented.

Reflecting on achievements of the EPWP, he outlined that “hundreds of thousands” of home-based care visits had been made and that “thousands” of schools were receiving meals with food grown in EPWP food gardens.

In addition, the EPWP, through the Working for Water programme, had saved an estimated 71% of South Africa’s grazing land from irreversible degradation through the removal of alien invasive plants.

The fires extinguished through the Working on Fire programme had saved the forestry industry “millions of rands”, while the maintenance of rural roads by mainly female-headed households led not only to income transfers into these households but also to women starting savings clubs and forming cooperatives.

Moreover, “thousands” of children were exposed to early education through early childhood development centres – many of which were partly staffed by EPWP participants.

“Through our social grants, we are now providing basic income support to over 16-million South Africans – up from three-million in 1994,” Zuma noted.