By putting Thoko Didiza in charge of the Department of Public Works, President Thabo Mbeki elevated it from the portfolio where ministers go to retire, to one that is central in job creation and development.
This was accentuated even further after the recent Cabinet lekgotla.
The government is to give more money and increase the personnel for the public works department to make it more effective in implementing the expanded public works programme (EPWP).
Following the lekgotla, Mbeki on Sunday said the department was now expected to drive the EPWP rather than just coordinate its activities.
In an interview this week, Didiza told the Mail & Guardian that her department had performed a thorough self-assessment before the Cabinet lekgotla.
”We looked at whether mere coordination was enough to achieve the intended objectives of the department,” said Didiza, who was moved to public works following the death of Stella Siqcau in May. ”In the end we felt there was a need to escalate the programme. This meant that we redefine our responsibilities and not just limit ourselves to coordination.
”It meant re-looking at various government initiatives such as the environment projects — the working for water and working for fire projects — to establish whether there are no opportunities to maximise job creation,” she added.
The EPWP is regarded as a critical intervention in the second economy to help create employment for those mostly caught in the very poor category. Its aim is to afford hundreds of thousands of unskilled South Africans an opportunity to derive an income while working in mostly short-term projects to build or improve public infrastructure such as schools, clinics and roads. In the process they are expected to acquire the necessary training that will enable them to be employable or to be self-employed in the long term.
Didiza said there were too few people currently working in the EPWP unit and they were overstretched but did not indicate how many more people were needed to beef up the department.
She said no new additional powers would be needed for the execution of her powers. Didiza said her new objectives included working with local municipalities, most of which have responsibility for the development of bulk infrastructure.
Mbeki launched the EPWP in 2004, saying it would create one million employment opportunities for mostly people in the low skill category within five years.
Two years on, Didiza, who has been in her new post for more than two months, said 300 000 South Africans had already benefited from the programme since 2004.
”We have to admit that in the first year we did not move fast enough. We have since gained experience. Now our priority is not just to count those who went through the process but to track them and see whether they get full-time employment as a result of the programme,” she said.
Didiza said she was uncertain whether the EPWP had so far made any dent on the unemployment statistics.
Meanwhile, Gwede Mantashe, the chairperson of the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa), has warned that skills shortage might derail the implementation of the government’s multibillion-rand infrastructure development programme.
And if the matter is not addressed urgently, the government might find it difficult to reach its target of 6% economic growth, according to Mantashe.
Research conducted by the Jipsa task team has found that the current pool of skills produced by institutions of higher learning in South Africa would not be enough to sustain the implementation of the government’s infrastructure programme.
A draft report containing Jipsa’s proposals on how government should tackle the issue of skills shortage shows that South Africa needs to produce 1 000 more engineers, 300 more technicians and about 15 000 more artisans a year.
The current estimated figures produced by universities and universities of technologies — formerly technikons — are between 1 300 and 1 400 engineers and 5 000 artisans a year. It is not clear how many technicians are produced annually.
”We need, as a matter of urgency, to train more engineers, artisans and technicians to maintain the provision of priority skills required to support accelerated and shared growth,” said Mantashe.
The initiative is part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, which is aimed at removing obstacles that stunt growth.
Jipsa, which comprises representatives from business, labour and government, is designed to support Asgisa’s objectives of promoting economic growth and halving poverty and unemployment by 2014.
It is also tasked, as a short-term measure, with the responsibility of identifying skills required in prioritised sectors such as tourism and business process outsourcing. Mantashe said Jipsa was currently developing a detailed plan on how the proposal targets would be met.