Community Work Programme Renews Hope in Randfontein

The message was clear in Randfontein that the Community Work Programme (CWP) continues to provide communities with a renewed hope, whilst changing their lives to the better.

This was the sentiment expressed by the Deputy Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), honourable Andries Nel, the councillors, SALGA Deputy Chair, CWP participants and beneficiaries yesterday (09 November 2016) during their visit.

The Deputy Minister visited the CWP sites in Randfontein as part of the Imbizo focus week programme. “This visit provide us an opportunity to engage communities, the participants and beneficiaries in this projects. It is also gives us an opportunity to ensure oversight and check progress with the implementation of the projects in various sites”, said DM Nel.

The Deputy Minister was briefed by the role players and the Local Municipality council chambers before proceeding to visiting the project sites at the Jabulani Informal Settlement:

  1. Food garden tunnels funded
  2. Jabulani Early Childhood Centre

The DM was able to engage CWP participants and other stakeholders who are part of the projects. The CWP is an area-based programme, designed as an employment ‘safety net’ offering a minimum level of regular and predictable work to poor communities. The CWP is anchored within the community development approaches and community participation.

The DM emphasised that CWP is part of government’s public employment programme aimed at addressing the current high levels of unemployment and poverty while addressing some of the deep seated problems that relaters to lack of skills and opportunities.

The focus on direct employment creation initiatives by government represents our resolve as a country to create an income stream to the poorest. The DM committed that CoGTA will continue supporting the CWP programme.

The message was loud and clear, CWP is indeed making a difference in the lives of ordinary communities across the country.

What is the Community Work Programme?

The Community Work Programme (CWP) is a community driven government programme based in the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG).

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The CWP has over the years been able to establish 10 key strategic partnerships in order to enhance the quality of work outputs and sustain projects initiatives. However, Implementing Agents enter into a number of informal partnerships or cooperation arrangements in implementing various initiatives that contribute to useful work since work activities cut across different sectors.

The Community Work Programme is currently being implemented in 208 sites covering a total of 201 municipalities. It is envisaged that by the end of the current financial year, the programme would have been extended to cover every municipality in the country.

To check if you qualify to register on the programme, phone 012 334 0600.

CWP Moves to Increase Number of Sites in the Western Cape

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The Community Work Programme is creating jobs and alleviating poverty across the country.

CoGTA Deputy Minister Andries Nel announced recently that an additional 21 423 participants and their families would benefit from the programme by March 2017.

“In the Western Cape, eight additional municipalities will have sites by the end of the financial year,” he said.

The CWP was established in 2010. It is one of government’s interventions to fight unemployment and create sustainable jobs to reach people living in marginalised areas where there are few opportunities.

In the Western Cape, the CWP was first implemented in only three sites – Theewaterskloof Municipality, Witzenberg and Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.

Xolisani Dinga, national representative of Dhladhla Foundation, the organisation tasked with implementing the CWP in the province, says the programme is growing and being rolled out in more municipalities.

“The programme started with three sites, and since then it has developed and is being implemented in 20 sites and currently putting food on the tables of 9 824 participants,” he said.

The CWP is designed to provide an employment safety net to eligible participants by offering them a minimum number of regular days of work each month.

There is a guaranteed minimum CWP wage, which is subject to revision by the Minister of Labour every year.

It also aims to provide participants with skills, both to do useful work in their communities and also to enhance their employability and ability to start their own businesses.

The CWP has become an instrument of community development by improving the quality of life through planting and cultivating food gardens at clinics, schools, churches and in household plots for neglected elderly people and orphans; home-based care; developing recreational spaces; general maintenance work including cleaning of schools and other tasks to support schools and community safety.

The CWP is intended to be an ongoing programme to fight unemployment. It provides participants with a sense of dignity and social inclusion whilst developing their skills to make them eligible for employment within implementing agents and sector organisations.