Jozi Mayor buoyant about Jozi@Work Sites
Nie Cele
The City of joburg is serious about turning job seekers into job makers. This was evident when the Executive Mayor, Parks Tau visited and showcased three sites in Soweto in the presence of dozens of the city officials, Deputy Minister of Public Works, Jeremy Cronin and a horde of journalists.
The trip took place after a series of presentations by various stakeholders from the three spheres of government at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
Tau told this publication that R1 billion from the current financial year has been set aside for this programme.
The Jozi@Work sites inspection began in Protea Glen Ext 11 and proceeded to Chiawelo Clinic where members of cooperatives and other community-based entities have started working after being awarded contracts to do street sweeping, waste separation and clearing of illegal dump sites, among others.
The entourage then proceeded to Mapetla Gardens where another co-operative conducted a public education campaign on bulk waste collection.
Setshego Rakoleka, owner of Zondi Plastic – a cooperative contracted under Jozi@Work said, “I am very excited to be part of this programme because we are set to start work on the 1st of May. We already have 18 employees from the local community ready to work with us and I think this is going to go a long way in boosting the morale of the locals.”
Bulelani Mabaso from Musa Telecoms working at the Chiawelo Clinic said, “The good thing about Jozi@Work is that it encourages locals to look after their own community.”
Mayor Tau added, “We are encouraged by the enthusiasm and dedication shown by these co-operatives. Today, we showcased work packages in the Waste Management sector and will be rolling out more work packages in the other areas soon.
“We are further encouraged by the level of creativity and innovation demonstrated by these co-operatives in finding solutions to challenges faced by communities,” Tau concluded.
Meanwhile The Democratic Alliance (DA) in council chambers wants to see openness about this programme.
They believe that not enough is being done to monitor the billions to be spent on this programme. In a terse statement released recently, the party, stated that they supported the objectives of the new scheme, to improve delivery while creating jobs.
However, there are concerns about its design and how it is being implemented, said Victor Penning, the DA’s shadow member of the mayoral committee for finance.
Penning also revealed that, none of the Council’s oversight structures has expressly been given the task of ensuring the integrity of the programme, including allocation of contracts.
“Given the City’s track record of inefficiency, including late payments to suppliers, the DA wants greater transparency on, among others,how standards are measured.”
DA Johannesburg Caucus Leader Vasco da Gama, said,
“We would like to see success stories, where local people are employed to uplift their communities.But the process must be open. We must see who got what job, why, how much they are being paid, and whether the work is up to scratch.”
“It’s about value for money for the benefit of ratepayers”, Da Gama said.
