Community Based Public Works Programme: briefing

Meeting report

SUMMARY
The Minister of Public Works said that their Department needs to create sustainable jobs and be clear about its target groups, namely women and youth, particularly in rural areas. The Minister complained about the tendency of Government to continuously create new structures and suggested that some pre -1994 structures be resuscitated.

The Deputy Director General informed the Committee that initially the Community Based Public Works Programme had been targeting individual projects but has now moved towards cluster projects, especially in rural areas. The Programme had been unable to provide sufficient permanent jobs, however the creation of more sustainable jobs is being looked at.

MINUTES
Address by the Minister
The Minister of Public Works, Ms Sigcau, said that Public Works services other Departments and the public at large. In South Africa there is a spectra of poverty. Poverty has to be eradicated and not just be alleviated. As a result the Government came up with a programme called Community Based Public Works Programme. She expressed the need by the Department to create sustainable jobs and to be clear about its target groups, namely women and youth, particularly in rural areas.

The Minister complained about the tendency of Government to create new structures all the time and she suggested some pre-1994 structures be resuscitated. She was referring particularly to the TBVC states, which have Government buildings that are not in use.

Minister Sigcau supported the aim of the Department to concentrate its work in rural areas as the migrant labour system destroyed the "fibre of life" in those areas. Even now people go to the cities where they stay in squatter camps. With the right kind of infrastructure in rural areas the problem can be stopped and the pressure of congestion in cities can be eased.

Community Based Public Works Programme
The Deputy Director General, Ms L Ngwane, informed the Committee that initially the Programme had targeted individual projects but has now moved toward targeting cluster projects, especially in rural areas. The Programme had been unable to provide sufficient permanent jobs, which is not an answer to the unemployment problem in the country. Creating more sustainable jobs is being looked at presently. Amongst the many sustainable projects the Programme is involved with, were community gardens as well as environmental projects. Country wide the focus is still on the 48 districts in the Eastern Cape, Northern Province and KwaZulu Natal.

The Deputy Director General announced that they have a number of special projects they are involved in. It included local industrial parks, a project with the South African Breweries, a project for the disabled, a youth project, and an access road to the Nelson Mandela Museum in the Eastern Cape. She said planning for the 2000/01 budget has been done and implementation of the budget will be immediate. An external audit committee inspects the projects to see that there is value for money. A system of managing and monitoring of information also exists. Proper accountability of funds is ensured.

The Deputy Director General said co-operative governance and working together with other Departments had been achieved and, at provincial level, a co-ordination committee exists. The aim is the capacitating of the communities themselves and the achievement of consensus with social partners.

Questions by the Committee and answers by the Deputy Director General
Q. Mr Moonsamy (ANC) asked why the Department of Transport deal with roads as well as the Department of Public Works. Further, he asked for an indication of projects that have been finished and are servicing the poor as planned.
A. The roads that are constructed by the Department of Public Works are only access roads. The Department of Transport constructs "quality" roads like the N1 and so on. The Department has a monitoring system of all projects but this does not mean that they are all in good condition. The system is such that a programme manager is supposed to go and see that there is quality. Should the expected quality standard be lacking, the Department is not supposed to pay.

Q. A Committee member asked what role does the Department think the members can play in monitoring these projects.
A. The Department expressed reservations at commenting on the role of parliamentarians. It proposed that the legislators could be watchdogs.

Q. Ms O Kasienyane (ANC) enquired whether the allocation of funds to the provinces by the Department is according to need or any other criteria.
A. There is a targeting formula that is used from surveys conducted in provinces whereby a lot of issues are taken into account, for example the availability of sanitation and clean water. There are urban areas that are poor. A balancing of needs as well as resources has to occur.

Q. Mr J Lucas (IFP) wanted to know if the communication between the Department and the communities it is servicing is in place.
A. There is structured communication with the communities. All development plans are done after consultation with the communities. The communication is constant and at times it is in the form of workshops.

Appendix 1:
COMMUNITY BASED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME: 1997-2000

BRIEFING TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS 23 FEBRUARY 2000

INTRODUCTION
The National Public Works Programme was established as an initiative to contribute towards poverty alleviation, employment creation, community assets and infrastructure. Community Based Public Works Programme is the sub-programme of NPWP, which is focused primarily on rural areas where most poverty is found.

GB PWP comprises of the following:
· Cluster of projects within identified poverty pockets in the rural areas;
· Targeted employment of female headed household and the youth through labour intensive methods;
· Creation of jobs by implementation of sustainable directly productive assets and access to trade opportunities.

Categories of CBPWP projects are the following:
· Improved access to trade - improving road access and facilitating community markets.
· Directly productive - i.e. projects, which provide ongoing sustainable employment such as agricultural food, lots, small scale irrigation, recycling, collection, stock dams etc.
· Labour saving - i.e. projects, which result in, reduced labour usage by communities such that the saved labour can be used for more productive activities. Examples of projects include water supply (which reduces time and labour required in carting water large distances; creches (which facilitate childcare while mothers are working) etc.
· Social Cohesion - i.e. projects that create social cohesion within disadvantaged communities such as multi-purpose centres, sports facilities etc.
· Environmental Protection - i.e. projects which result in protection of the environment such as erosion control, donga rehabilitation, revegetation etc.

In late 1996, the Department constituted a Pre-implementation task Team (PITT) to re-align the CBPWP. Using the data from the 1995 October Household Survey (OHS), PITT conducted a detailed analysis of the socio-economic situation in the 48 District Councils in South Africa. The end product was a Report ranking all District Councils according to their poverty and population indices. This Report then formed a basis for identifying District Councils for budget allocation, which were approved by the Minister.

This document deals with the activities of the CBPWP during the period between 1997 and 2000. (An nexure 1 shows the statistics for the period between 1997 and 1999).

ALLOCATION IN 1997/1998: R85 M
This allocation allowed the Department to test the clustering approach. It also allowed an opportunity to test the new approach of using the District and Regional Councils, as opposed to provincial Departments of Public Works, as programme implementing agents (PIAs). The funding was divided up among Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Northern Province as the targeted provinces by virtue of their being the most rural and poor. In terms of the District and Regional Councils the allocation was made as follows:

· Eastern Cape (R27 m): the Kei District Council was targeted in order to deal with the violence at the Tsolo and Qumbu areas.
· KwaZulu Natal (R23 m): The Ugu, Uthungulu and Zululand Regional Councils benefited.
· Northern Province (R22 m): The vast Northern District Council was targeted.

ALLOCATION IN 1998/1999: R274m
With this allocation the Department targeted Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Northern Province. A total of 340 projects were identified. Due to the fact that these funds were only approved in November 1998, projects were implemented during the course of 1999 and will all be completed before the cut-off date of 31 March 2000.

Eastern Cape
An amount of R29 million was allocated to the Kei District Council. Project
clusters have been implemented at Vidgesville, Tombo, Tabase and
Mqanduli.

Stormberg District Council has the following clusters: Bolotwa Kakamastone, McBride, Ilinge, St Marks and Lubisi Dam. This council received R16,8 million.

For the Wild Coast District Council, the clusters are Magusheni, Lower Ntafufu, Clydesdale and Kromhoek. The District Council was given R23,9.

At the Amatola District Council, R24,9 million was allocated to implement the following clusters: Gatjana-Dwesa-Ntabakazi, Amatola Mountain East, Amatola Mountain West, Pedi=Fish River and Amatola Access Road

Northern Province
The Northern District Council received R65,9 million to spend on the following clusters: Tshipise, Rolanani-Letsitele, Orinoko Bush, Rietfontein-eastern Tubake, Magkuba-Dikolong, Champaign, Bushbuckridge, Phushubang-Malake and Disabled People Small Scale Farm.

kwaZulu Natal
Within the Uthungulu Regional Council the following clusters are in progress: Nkandla, Dondotha, Sokhulu, Mlalazi and Mbazwane-KwaNgwanase. The total amount that was allocated to the Uthungulu Regional Council was R53,2 million

Maphumulo, Lower Tugela, Ndwedwe and Umbumbulu are the clusters under implementation in the Ilembe Regional Council. An amount of R20,5 million was allocated to the Ilembe.

The clusters in the Ugu Regional Council are Amandawe, Inyavini, Phungashe, Oshabeni and Jollivet and these have been implemented using an amount of R18 million

ALLOCATION IN 1999 - 2000-02-22
A further R274 million was allocated for CBPWP in this period. In addition, an amount of R103 million was allocated from the Job Creation Fund for roads projects in the Wild Coast and Lubombo Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs) in Eastern Cape and Kwa Zulu Natal respectively.

A total of 385 projects have been identified and are currently being established on site. Of the R103 million allocated to the SDI roads, R80 million was allocated to the Wild Coast SDI where 40 projects have been identified and planned - the remaining R23 million has been allocated to 7 roads on the Lubombo SDI. Around 66 000 jobs have been targeted for this financial year.

The following sets of projects will be implemented through the Community Based Public Works Programme in the 1999-2000 financial year:
· Programme Implementing Agency (PIA) projects. These are the
normal projects identified through the contractual relationship between the Department and the District and Regional Councils.
· Special projects/priority projects. Special projects are usually partnerships with other funders or roleplayers (e.g. the Clean and Green programme run as a partnership with the South African Breweries). Priority projects are usually identified between the Minister and specific communities.

PIA PROJECTS : R98 900 001

ALLOCATION IN 2000-2001
PIanning is underway of a fast-track programme utilising the funds for the 2000-2001 financial year. The Government has already pledged R374 million for RCBPWP for that financial year. On this understanding, the Department has targeted all the District and Regional Councils in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Northern Province, Mpumalanga, North West, and Free State. Some of the projects have already been identified in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Northern Province.

IMPROVEMENTS MADE TO THE CBPWP
To ensure that the projects we are talking about are all physically existing on the ground, and also to ensure good financial and information management the following improvements have been instituted:

· External Technical Audits: of projects to ensure quality and value for money
· Photo Library: of all projects undertaken
· Sustainability Planning: to ensure projects are sustainable in the long term
· MMIS (Management Monitoring Information System) : to ensure accountable reporting of expenditure, progress and social impact
· PMS (Programme Management System) : to ensure consistent, accountable procedures
· AMS (Achievement Milestone Schedule): to ensure projects are planned properly
· CBPWP Targets: Contractors and agents held accountable for achieving the CBPWP Targets

POLICY OUTPUTS
Having evaluated the CBPWP in 1996, the Department constituted a Preimplementation Task Team (PITT) to re-align the programme, the above financial allocations have enabled the Department to practically test the realigned programme. The results have been more than encouraging with the following policy outputs emerging:

· Co-operative Governance. The Community Based Public Works Programme has consolidated the relationship between the different spheres of government in the true spirit of Co-operative Governance. It is through this form of institutional relationship that has made possible for the District and Regional Councils to take up the responsibility of Development Local Government.
· Integrated and sustainable rural development. By operating through the Provincial Coordinating Committees (PCCs), the CBPWP has fostered collaboration with the various line departments at the provincial level.

NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND LABOUR COUNCIL (NEDLAC)
The Department of Public Works is one of the four key departments that participate at NEDLAC. Although participation is not limited to these four departments, DPW is the leader of Government delegation in the Development Chamber. Our obiectives are therefore the following:
· Lead government delegation into the Development Chamber.
· Mobilise support for Government policy positions from the social partners.
· Build consensus with social partners on key policies and programmes.

According to the NEDLAC Act social partners (trade unions, NGO's and Business) are suppose to be consulted on policies relating socio-economic development, trade, finance and labour issues. The Development Chamber as one of these four chambers looks at issues relating to socio-economic development.

In the last two years these issues on the agenda for the year were categorised into:
· Social Infrastructure e.g. CBPWP, Construction industry transformation, Municipal infrastructure, Housing
· Institutional Infrastructure e.g. National Development Agency, Policy for the Disabled
· Poverty e.g. Social Welfare, Land Reform and Rural Development.

For year 2000 the Draft Agenda (until approved by the Executive Council) will include the following:
· Education
· Transport
· Masakhane
· Poverty Eradication
· Learnership programmes for the youth
· Focus on the Special Groups
· Housing
· HIVIAIDS
· Social Security
· Relationship with parliament
· Public Works Programmes
· Construction Industry Transformation