Public works programmes in the Western Cape have proved to be an effective method of poverty relief, reports Barry Streek
Public works programmes in the Western Cape have, in general, been successful and more cost-effective in transferring benefits to the poor using direct cash grants.
Researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Southern African labour and development research unit and the international food policy research unit have found that there was a high level of community involvement in the 101 public works projects set up in the province by the government.
“The programmes that are most cost- effective in transferring benefits to the poor are labour-intensive and are well targeted.”
The research, which evaluated the 101 projects clustered in seven programmes in the Western Cape between 1994 and 1997, found that about R164,9-million of taxpayers’ money was spent to create 1,36- million working days.
Alternatively, the money created 5 201 working years. This is the equivalent of giving 5 000 people a full-time job for a year or 1 000 people a full-time job for five years.
On average it cost R121 to create a day of work. Some projects such as the Fynbos Working for Water Programme created as many as 820 442 working days at an economical cost of R40 per working day, while others created far fewer working days at a much greater cost of up to R754 per working day but at much higher rates of pay on average.
The findings of the researchers – Michelle Adato, Lawrence Haddad, Dudley Horner, Neetha Ravjee and Ridwaan Haywood – are being studied this week at a two- day workshop on public works in Cape Town.
Using socio-economic data at the magisterial district level, the researchers found that some districts with very high levels of poverty and unemployment had no projects, while some districts with low levels of poverty got several projects.
One particular finding could, in part, explain the voting patterns of coloured people since 1994: Mitchells Plain is the most populous district in the Western Cape with 26,2% of the provincial population. “It contributes 36,5% of the poverty and about the same level of unemployment and infrastructure need, but receives only 7,92% of public works projects, province-wide (eight out of 101 projects).”
The 1996 census, however, found there were 299 114 unemployed people in the province, which gives a broad rate of 17,9%, the lowest in the nine provinces. Among the coloured people of Mitchells Plain, who were all forcibly relocated there during the apartheid era, the unemployment rate is double that of the rest of the province. It is the only district in the province where the unemployment rate is more than 20%.
In these circumstances, the cry that coloured people suffered under apartheid because they were not white and are now suffering under the African National Congress government because they are not black must have some resonance.
The researchers found that only 5% of employment days generated province-wide under the public works programmes were in Mitchells Plain.
The projects included construction of roads, community and demonstration gardens, the development of home gardens and community halls.
“Future benefits to the wider community were realised in terms of empowerment of community-based organisations, the leveraging of additional funds, and improvements in the quality of life as realised in the health and education of children as future adults in the community.
“In terms of future benefits to the participants of the projects, in the 80 case study projects, 44% of former project workers surveyed had some full- time work in the day after the project, while the number was 22% before the project, although there may be factors other than their participation in the project involved.
“However, 10% of those workers engaged in full-time work at some time in the post-project year told us that the work was related to the work they did on the project. This number reached at least 20% in the Langa, Khayelitsha and Lutzville projects, suggesting effective networks, training or more opportunities in the area,” say the researchers.
They found that community organisations (if they had the resources) were as effective as local government in implementing projects. Community participation was found to be important for selecting the type of infrastructure and contributing to design choices that have the potential to increase job creation through the project and project spin-offs.
In short, despite problems of implementation, the public works programmes in the Western Cape have overall proved an effective method of poverty relief – and far more effective than cash handouts.