EPWP Beneficiaries Now Full-Time Employees of Overstrand Municipality | Western Cape Government

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EPWP Beneficiaries Now Full-Time Employees of Overstrand Municipality

2 December 2014

The 2014 festive season started on a good note for 60 former beneficiaries of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in the Overstrand Municipality.

A ceremony was held in Magnolia Street, Hermanus on 1 December 2014 to celebrate the 60, 43 men and 17 women,  who were employed full-time by the municipality.

They are from Hermanus, Gansbaai, Stanford and Kleinmond.

The Local Economic Development coordinator of the Overstrand Municipality, Chantal Hill said the group will be employed in the Fire and Rescue, Law and Traffic Directorates of the Municipality.

Ms Hill said the 60 were EPWP beneficiaries since 2012.

“All 60 were aware that being beneficiaries did not mean entitlement. They had to apply when the vacancies became available, were shortlisted and went for the interviews”, she said.

The Deputy Minister of Public Works, Jeremy Cronin who welcomed the group said the success story behind the EPWP in the Overstrand Municipality was that recruitment took place neutrally.

He said in many parts of the country the recruitment was politicised.

He said we in South Africa had generations within families who had never experienced any formal employment and that the hopelessness those unemployed experienced often resulted in service delivery unrest where public libraries or train coaches were burnt down.

The Municipal Manager of the Overstrand, Coenie Groenewald, said the municipal area had an unemployment rate of 23%. Mr Groenewald said over the last five years Overstrand Municipality managed to create an additional 551 full-time jobs.

“Many, even those in the private sector, battle to achieve what we have done”, he said.

Richard Petersen, the Chief Director of EPWP at the Department of Transport and Public Works, the department driving the programme in the province, said Overstrand was slow to be part of EPWP when it started 11 years ago.

Mr Petersen said it was inspiring to see what the municipality had achieved since inception. He said Overstrand was one of the best EPWP performing municipalities in the country.

Media Enquiries: 

Al-Ameen Kafaar
Head of Communication
Department of Transport and Public Works
Tel: 021 483 9653
Cell: 083 383 3317
E-mail: Al-Ameen.Kafaar@westerncape.gov.za

You can follow the Department of Transport and Public Works on Twitter: @WCGovTPW