By Nkhensane Hlangwane
01/12/2015
Picture: MMC for Economic Development Cllr Subesh Pillay , Deputy City Manager , Ms Lindiwe Kwele showing off the new award
There’s nothing joyful than receiving an endowment for a job well done.
The City of Tshwane Executive Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa won the Kamoso award in job creation and skills development through the Extended Public Works Programme(EPWP) – labelled Operation ‘Vat Alles’. This programme has created 30 280 new job opportunities in the 2013/14 financial year and a target of 40 000 opportunities for the 2014/15 financial year work opportunities.
Department of Public Works announced that the Tshwane region has won the Award for the Youth Greening Project this year on Thursday, 25 November 2015. The city was nominated in 3 categories in the 14/15 Kamoso awards Best Construction project – Tshwane Bus Rapid Transport; Best Metro Social Sector – Overall Implementation of Social Sector Programmes and Best District / Metro Project: Environment and Culture Sector – Youth Greening Project.
The Kamoso Awards recognise the EPWP as a key government programme aimed at providing relief to South Africans with objectives like acknowledging and implementing bodies that have performed well in terms of the EPWP Objectives; mobilising government stakeholders and partners to increase their efforts around the implementation of the EPWP; communicating and showcasing progress, impact and success of the EPWP, and to use the awards event as a platform to enhance the visibility of the EPWP and reinforce its objectives to the broader public and to promote the creation of labour intensive work opportunities
Picture: EPWP Workers cleaning up the Centurion Lake
The EPWP’s purpose is to ensure that one gains strategy in development skills and an objective to empower beneficiaries by giving them a skill that will enable them to compete on the job market. The project has embarked on a skills assessment process and the intended purpose is to identify the skills level of each beneficiary in the project, so that they can be further equipped and empowered.
” To continue to ensure that those who have gained new skills through the EPWP programme , as the city we want to make an undertaking to firstly appoint from the ‘Vat Alles’ database before sourcing from outside, when we seek workers for entry posts for semi-skilled and under-skilled positions, as we believe that This has assisted the project this will assist in securing permanent employment as well as implement a successful exit for the beneficiaries out of the EPWP, because the project strives to provide work opportunities for the city of Tshwane residents who are unskilled and do not have hope of getting employment opportunities.”-said Ramokgopa.
