Expanded Public Works Programme Phase 2: briefing by Department of Public Works; Independent Development Trust on unsafe school structures

Meeting report

Department of Public Works Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) progress reports
Mr Stanley Henderson, , Deputy Director-General, Expanded Public Works Programme, Department of Public Works, gave Members progress reports on the Expanded Public Works Programme Phase 2 (EPWP) which was one of Government’s initiatives to half unemployment and poverty by 2014. The EPWP aimed at reducing unemployment, beginning with the metropolitan municipalities and extending to other districts and rural municipalities. The Department was committed to creating 400 job opportunities per metropolitan district by means of the Pothole Rehabilitation Programme.

The presentation included the Pothole Rehabilitation Programme for the Department of Public Works (DPW), the EPWP progress report, the deployment of data capturers, technical support, the National Youth Service and National Rural Youth Services Corps, the average duration of work opportunities, the provincial incentive grants, the EPWP reporting system, the national EPWP II projects, and the building of new schools and replacement of unsafe structures.

The Department of Public Works’ National Youth Service (DPW NYS) programme’s focus was on the training of youth in artisan trades in the built environment. The DPW NYS programme consisted of one year of training of six months of theoretical training and six months of practical training. For the 2010/11 financial year, 3 235 youth had been recruited on the programme so far. 100 youth who had left the NYS programme in the Northern Cape had been placed on an artisan training programme with the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA). The Department planned to place some of the youth who had exited the programme on the Pothole Repair Programme and cooperatives cleaning the land ports of entry.

The Department also reported on the work opportunities created by the EPWP. The national departments contributed to 186 309 work opportunities out of the 493 230 work opportunities achieved in the third quarter. In the Infrastructure sector there were 246 projects that contributed 5 272 work opportunities. The contributing departments were Correctional Services, Justice and Constitutional Development, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Public Works and Department of Police. The departments in the environment and culture sector had contributed 45 983 work opportunities from 654 projects. The contributing departments were Environmental Affairs, Tourism, Public Works, and Water Affairs. The community works programme and non- profit organisations which constitute the non-state sector had contributed 91 430 work opportunities. The Department also gave an analysis on the deployment of data capturers.

(For technical details of the Pothole Repair Programme, and tables and graphs on the EPWP, please refer to the presentation document.)

Preliminary discussion
Ms C Madlopha (ANC) raised a concern that the focus was only on the metropolitan municipalities. Priority was also on rural development and high poverty areas in districts. She asked how the poor were going to benefit out of this. EPWP had a target of 100 days of work and training, yet results showed only 46 days. Having failed to meet the 100 days, how was the Department planning on doing better and achieving 6months?

Ms N Madlala (ANC) asked what would happen after six months and whether those people would be considered for other jobs.

Mr M Rabotapi (DA) was concerned with the presence of the EPWP on the ground and also said that the people in rural areas were still not paid.

Ms N Ngcengwane (ANC) asked how the training was going to be distributed, how soon were they planning on implementing the potholes program and how they were going to make this happen.

Mr W Doman (DA) said he understood that the Department started where there would be interaction with a few manageable municipalities. He asked how the Department was going to work with the standard of fixing potholes. Would it make use of the local municipality expertise or will stand on its own?

The Chairperson said that the Department did not appear to be binding itself to anything. It must be clear.

The Department responded that the metros spread to district municipalities and that meant 200 jobs created. The rural development strategy was being used. After six months, there were 200 unemployed young people and some of them were in existing programs. The Department now had a database and sustained their stay. So they were not just there for six months. He said, regarding quality assurance, that there were organisations already fixing the roads so the Department will make sure that the materials used were approved by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).  

Mr Rabotapi asked what the programme in the rural areas was.

The Chairperson said what was being said was not what was happening on the ground. The way potholes are repaired was not satisfying. It is clear that the Department dealt with metros because there were no potholes yet the situation outside Cape Town was terrible.

Ms Madlopha said numbers should be increased in the rural areas within EPWP since a lot of backlog was in the rural areas. She supported the President’s call on the focus on rural development. She asked for a list of beneficiaries and for monitoring.

Mr N Magubane (ANC) asked for the employment of qualified companies all round since the potholes were managed smoothly in cities and it was a difficult case outside the cities.

The Department said the list of beneficiaries would be availed and he emphasised that CSIR had been involved to ensure good quality.

Mr Henderson said that phase one of the programme was mainly focused on public sector funding and phase two was focused on work opportunities. He said the
Department would report on the progress when the year came to an end. The report will go through to the National Treasury then be submitted to the Minister. There was poor reporting and under reporting; that meant the programme data was not according to what was happening on the ground. In Midrand there was a centre to dispatch data and this would ensure that data would get on the system. Technical support was being provided to municipalities and this was most needed in the rural areas. 174 municipalities had been provided and the Department was still working towards more.

The Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) and the Siyenza Manje programme had worked together to expend to municipalities that had been covered.

The National Youth Service Programme focused on training the youth in artisan trades, both theoretically and physically for six months each. By this, young people were being exposed. However, what happened to them after the training was challenging.

The concept of Public Works program was based on creating at least 100 days of work per person per year, which meant two days of work per week. With the Zibambele programme, the poor rural people had the ability to work and do other things the rest of the week. He said that it was preferable to look at the range of the results than at the average since in different sectors there were different responses and the average of 46 days was misleading. Rather then giving one household income for a long period of time, it was preferable to cover more households and this was the call the poor people themselves had made. He said the metros had to hold a certain threshold. The rural threshold on the other hand was zero.

The Chairperson said, by looking at the Western Cape, one found that the people at the artisan workshop in the regional office had nothing to do. She asked why these people and workshops were not utilised. The Department of Public Works had 40 artisan workshops in the whole of South Africa.

Ms Madlopha asked if the trained artisans were deployed. She appreciated the analysis of the report. In future, she expected the municipalities to be indicated. The analysis showed 30. The Independent Development Trust (IDT) had 60. She asked how many Public Works had. She asked if the provinces supported were within the departments that they controlled.

Mr Magubane asked how many of the 3 235 youth came from the rural areas.

Mr Doman asked if the data captures were doing evaluation as well, what role they played and what were they equipped to do. He was concerned that the Northern Cape and the North West had not accessed the innovation for the past financial year.

Mr P Mnguni (COPE) asked if those that did not report would be held accountable.  

Mr Rabotapi asked what determined the numbers and what numbers where needed per province.

Ms Ngcegwane said it was important to have the payment of the contractors made on time. She asked for a breakdown per province of the work opportunities created.

Mr Henderson said the Department’s workshops had made an effort to address the revival of workshops and would ensure maintenance was done efficiently and served as a vehicle to expose young people

Ms L Bici, Acting Chief Operations Officer, Department of Public Works, said in the past there were people who were deployed with in workshops but a decision had been made to reinitiate them.

Ms Madlopha asked if the existing people that had been trained were being utilised and was there a need to recruit and train more people.

Mr Henderson said that the Department had looked at two groups - the employees of the Department and the young people who had been trained and drawn into the programme. By the revival of the workshops, these young people would be exposed to work with those who had experience and they would absorb experience. The 90 data capturers would not be enough for capture of the whole country and the Department had tried to centralise a core group and, where needed, a bigger number would be sent out. The core function of these was to capture data, this meant quality control check. The monitoring and evaluation was dealt with in a broader framework of monitoring and evaluation.

Mr Magubane said the rural areas were being ignored in many spheres of Government and he asked for specific details.

The Chairperson asked where the data captures where placed and how many per province. She asked for the information in future and also a follow up on the Northern Cape and North West performance.

Mr Henderson said that what had been done was to give targets and state who should be responsible for what. The protocols between the Minister and the municipalities were in the process of being signed. The Department had a rational approach regarding technical support. It had been constantly working on ensuring proper payment was being made, it had engaged with the relevant municipalities since not paying the workers would stop the work. He said the provinces and municipalities analysis would be sent through electronically.

Ms Madlopha asked if the infrastructure was part of the R846 billion budget that was given, if that was the case she would have assumed that development had taken place. Yet there was a challenge of slow delivery in the Government processes.

Ms Ngcengwane asked what was being done to make sure the issue of not spending money did not happen again. The glossy reports did not reflect what was on the ground and did not alleviate poverty.

Mr Henderson said that the Department’s approach targeted the rural roads and this optimised the opportunity for jobs. It had re-prioritised and was adjusting to the nation state address.

The Chairperson stopped the discussion and responses and allowed for the IDT presentation to take place.

Independent Development Trust (IDT) presentation
Mr Ayanda Wakaba, Executive, Independent Development Trust (IDT) reported that there were 8 537 unsafe school structures in the country. The Eastern Cape had 3 250 unsafe schools, the highest number, of which 1 652 were mud/clay structures. KwaZulu-Natal had 1 004 unsafe school structures. The Northern Cape reported 206 unsafe school structures. This was the lowest number, and this province did not have any mud/clay schools. The IDT had been appointed by the national Department of Public Works for the implementation of an urgent programme for construction of safe schools.

From 2009 IDT set aside an amount of R150 million to initiate the programme, not only funding infrastructure of schools but also information technology (IT) laboratories, furniture and the employment created thereby. The methodology used by IDT was the constructive alternative methodology.

Mr Wakaba mentioned some of the challenges that were faced, namely that institutional arrangements in the programme compromised accountability. The national Department of Public Works was often seen as the department accountable for the programme yet the resources for the programme went to the provincial departments of education.

Discussion
Ms Madlala said the presentation was not clear. There was no exact breakdown of the situation of schools and the status of furniture. She said the mud schools were only mentioned in the Eastern Cape but other provinces that had mud schools were not indicated.

Mr Mnguni asked if the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) was also involved and if there was partnering.

Ms Ngcengwane was concerned about the payment of workers, because in the end they would die out because of non-payment. She said no proper planning was being done with the sister department; they should work together and would like to assist as much as possible.


Ms Madlopha asked about the integrated planning. Since there was an outcry that the mandate of the Department was being compromised, she asked for clarity on the co-ordinated efforts.

Mr Doman asked if the programme in the final analysis was only about replacements and if planning came into play as needs shifted. He wanted an indication on the practical implications that had to keep a school going. He picked up that the IDT did not have the final say in things and asked if it could explain that in detail.

Ms Bici said that the provincial department of public works had mandates to provide accommodation for the Department of Basic Education and therefore that would mean they were responsible for developing infrastructure for the Department of Basic Education. The Department of Public Works had worked together with the Department of Basic Education. When the programme started it had a joined session with the heads of the Department of Basic Education to plan. She said the Department of Public Works was not involved in the R2.5 billion. It had an understanding that the Department of Basic Education was building its own capacity and it had made their plans to be able to implement the program.

Mr Wakaba said the Eastern Cape had a bigger backlog regarding mud schools and was prioritised to take up 60% of the budget. The other 40% was for the remaining provinces for the use of basic services infrastructure and work toward eradicating mud schools and providing water and sanitation. Planning was a challenge. He noted as an important factor that more information should be provided.

Ms Ngengwane asked what was happening with the reports from the public departments, how binding they were and how monitoring was carried out.

Ms Bici said the Department had minutes and discussed its programmes broadly throughout activities as sister departments, specifically with regard to the eradication of mud schools.

The Chairperson reminded the Committee about the progress report on financial performance and matters raised by the Auditor-General in 2010
           
The meeting was adjourned.