/ 14 September 2000

JOBLESS TO BENEFIT FROM FUND

LABOUR’S Job Creation Trust Fund is ready to start spending R62 million collected from one-day salary donations collected by three major labour federations. The fund, created at the 1998 Presidential Job Summit, collected money from members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the National Council of Trade Unions and the Federation of Unions of South Africa. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said donations as low as R7 were donated by workers and ”big amounts” came from President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela. A contract has been signed with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, which will evaluate and implement job creation proposals. Vavi said there would be a bias towards projects in the poorest areas of South Africa , especially in the Northern Province, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.