SABC News reports that the 20 years of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) have yielded positive results and produced artisans in various fields of trade. This was announced at the Free State launch of the EPWP Phase-Five in Bloemfontein, as government celebrated some of the beneficiaries of the programme. Five hundred people signed three-year employment contracts as part of the rollout of the programme. Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala, says they intend to permanently do away with outsourcing.

“They build internal capacity in the sense that we are using artisans who are in-sourced and not those artisans who are provided by the private sector or the consultants. That builds the capacity of the state. But it helps us also because we deliver on our own, which saves money, and we believe that it helps with artisan skills. So that those who are benefiting when they exit will go out of the programme with tangible skills to sustain themselves,” says Zikalala.

by Konelo Lekhafola