The Department of Public Works is compiling a shortlist of candidates to be interviewed to head the government’s R15-billion Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
”At this stage, we are in the process of appointing that person,” departmental spokesperson Thami Ngidi said on Monday.
The appointment will be at the level of deputy director general (DDG).
The programme’s aim is to create a million jobs over a five-year period — at least 200 000 each year.
But the Democratic Alliance said it is all going too slowly.
Although announced in October 2003, the programme has still not taken off and no head has yet been appointed, the DA said on Sunday.
”In many provinces and municipalities, no jobs have been created under this programme despite the fact that a number of senior appointments were made in the minister’s office in July last year at a total salary budget of R5-million per year.
”We will seek answers to the ANC’s [African National Congress] failure to appoint a DDG in charge of the programme and its failure to launch the programme properly in most areas of the country,” said Sakkie Blanche, the DA spokesperson on the EPWP.
The DA’s statement came on the eve of the party’s visit to the department’s Pretoria office and to all the nine provinces in the coming weeks.
Ngidi, however, refused to comment on whether the programme has already taken off, saying he cannot respond to politicians.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Public Works Ntopile Kganyago has addressed the managers of four of Limpopo’s municipalities, urging them to make job creation a priority.
Kganyago and Limpopo public works minister Thaba Mufamadi met with the managers of Waterberg, Buhlabela, Vhembe and Mopane councils in Polokwane on Monday, Ngidi said.
”One of the guidelines is that municipalities must set aside a third of their annual budgets to implement EPWP programmes,” Ngidi said.
Although four municipalities were represented at the meeting, seven of Limpopo’s biggest municipalities had been invited with some not attending.
”Unfortunately, the other municipalities failed to confirm their attendance,” Ngidi said. ”The department had invited the largest and most influential municipalities to show smaller municipalities that achieving the aims of the EPWP was possible.”
The minister is to visit large municipalities in all nine provinces as part of a countrywide drive to promote job creation and to ensure a common understanding of what is expected of municipalities by the EPWP, he said. — Sapa