Question NW112 to the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
22 July 2019 - NW112
Nxumalo, Mr MN to ask the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
(1) Whether, with regard to the recent negative growth figures in the Republic’s gross domestic product (GDP) and the appalling unemployment rate, she has any clear plans in place to ensure that her department plays a vital and constructive role in alleviating the impact of the current and the forecast of negative growth in GDP through the creation of short- and long-term jobs; if not, why not; if so, what are the full details of her strategy; (2) whether she has a contingency plan in place should her plan or strategy fail; if not, why not; if so, what indicators will she use to measure the success of the strategy?
Reply:
The Minister of Public Works & Infrastructure:
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has acquired a new role, which is that of coordinating infrastructure development for the whole country. This is additional to the role that the Department had in terms coordinating the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), which aims to provide mainly short-term work opportunities, as well as provide income support to the poor and unemployed. The programme which started in 2004 is now in the fourth phase of implementation. For programme roll-out purposes, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has developed a well consulted EPWP Phase IV Business Plan covering the period 2019/20 – 2023/24, with a target of 5 million work opportunities.
We must acknowledge that South Africa needs to invest more in infrastructure in order to create conditions that are conducive to economic growth. A number of State-owned buildings do not provide environments where officials are able to execute their functions effectively, largely due to accessibility and maintenance issues. We must now begin to invest more in maintenance, which will not only assist to keep our buildings in a liveable state, but also create thousands of decent jobs, both long-term and short term. The aim is to ensure coordinated efforts, not only within the Public Works sector, but also among all Government departments and institutions that are responsible for infrastructure roll-out.
(2) We do not plan to fail. We will ensure robust monitoring and evaluation of our implementation in order to identify challenges and weakness and apply the right interventions where necessary. For instance, in terms of the implementation of the EPWP the strategy will include the signing of agreements with public bodies on the EPWP, provision of guidelines, provision of technical support, engaging public bodies to utilise their Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) allocations for the implementation of the Programme, as well as the continuous monitoring of the performance of public bodies.
The Business Plan will be monitored in terms of the EPWP Monitoring and Evaluation Framework with the following indicators included:
- Number of work opportunities created;
- Number of work opportunities disaggregated by the following categories: youth, women and people with disabilities;
- Income transferred to participants; and
- Contribution towards community assets and services rendered.