Business Day
*Public works projects get SA working * *Carol Paton, Business Day, Johannesburg, 15 February 2012 *THE government's public employment programmes are growing at such a rate that by 2014 there will be the equivalent of about 1,4-million people in public works jobs at any one time.
While counting the numbers of people in public employment programmes has for some time been clouded in smoke and mirrors --- President Jacob Zuma promised that he would create 1-million public works jobs in his first year in office --- a clearer picture is emerging, aided by briefings yesterday by Cabinet ministers who make up the social protection cluster.
Public employment schemes are gathering steam with several initiatives now under way in different departments. Given the size and shape that they are taking, it is possible to anticipate that by 2014, 1-million people will have regular work in the community work programme, while a further full-time equivalent of 361739 jobs will be in existence at any one time through the expanded public works programme.
In the case of the latter, since these are "full-time equivalents", the number of actual beneficiaries will be about 868000 people.
For some, particularly those in the community work programme --- which is designed to offer participants three days' work a week for as long as they want to participate in the programme --- many of the beneficiaries of public works programmes will have had the benefit of regular employment at rates not very far below what can be earned in the open labour market.
A day's rate on a public work programme is R60. A minimum wage for a farm worker is R7 an hour or R56 for an eight-hour day.
Of the programmes being rolled out, the expanded public works programme remains the largest: between 2009 and 2014 the target is to create 4,5-million work opportunities in road building and maintenance, street-cleaning, and community-based jobs such as home care for the sick, childcare and early childhood education.
Since these vary in length, the government has wisely begun measuring public employment using "full-time equivalents", reducing the opportunities for political point-scoring over the number of jobs actually created.
The 4,5-million job opportunities under the expanded public works programme will amount to 2-million full-time equivalents, says Department of Public Works deputy director-general Stanley Henderson.
There is evidence that --- at least on paper --- the scheme is on track to meet the targets. Between 2009 and September last year, 1,8-million job opportunities were created, or 451000 full-time equivalents.
It is expected that the introduction two years ago of the community or "social" category of employment to the programme, will be able to absorb large numbers of people into basic unskilled work such as home-based care programmes for the aged or for people with terminal illnesses. This will allow for a more rapid expansion than relying solely on road-building and maintenance programmes, which can be short-lived and cannot be sustained by local municipalities.
While road building, especially municipal and provincial roads, will remain the backbone of the expanded public works programme, new Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi told a briefing at Parliament yesterday that community or social jobs were expected to make a quarter of the 2-million total.
A separate and new public employment programme is the community work programme, run by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Located in municipalities and run by externally appointed service providers, the community works programme is anticipated to grow exponentially.
From 79000 jobs at present, it is hoped that by 2014, the programme will employ 1-million people in regular, three-day a week work.
This work can involve a variety of socially useful activities from growing food, to renovating schools, clearing litter and illegal dumpsites to after-school care.
Several other government departments also run public works schemes of a sort. In a briefing by Cabinet ministers --- who form part of the "social protection cluster" of ministries at Parliament yesterday in which the various public employment schemes were outlined --- Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said that an additional 50000 direct jobs had been created in the government's human settlements programme.
At yesterday's briefing, Cabinet ministers said they expected that the recent announcement by President Jacob Zuma to intensify infrastructure investment would create further public employment opportunities.
"The emphasis on infrastructure expansion in the state of the nation address creates the ideal opportunity to introduce a labour-intensive approach in the context of large capital projects. It is envisaged that many expanded public works programme work opportunities will be created," said M s Dlamini.
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