Accuracy of jobs report questioned at sub-council

A City report claiming that 2300 expanded public works programme (EPWP) jobs were created across 80 projects in the Sub-council 2 precinct during the first three months of the year has been called into question by the sub-council chairwoman.

The report was tabled at a sub-council meeting on Wednesday, but Marian Nieuwoudt said the 2 359 jobs it referred to reflected the sub-council’s old ward boundaries, which had been changed ahead of the 2021 municipal elections, so it was doubtful whether all the people who had benefited from the job opportunities were part of the newly defined sub-council precinct.

“Remember we had elections and we had shifts in the boundaries of the wards. Some wards have changed boundaries. Some of the people are still in the database of other wards. We need to find a way to bring them into the new ward boundaries. So the numbers that are even in the report, we question these numbers because the boundaries are wrong in the system."

The sub-council includes the Cilmor industrial area in the west, Bloekombos and Wallacedene in the east, Kuils River in the south and Haasendal smallholdings in the north.

Ms Nieuwoudt said the EPWP jobs were mainly for cleaning and varied depending on available projects in the wards.

“They (the City) use the programme for cleaning mainly. But, for instance, in the environment, we use EPWP programmes in the nature reserves to do alien clearing. We also use them when contractors do the road repairs. Some of them have been trained to navigate the traffic. Sometimes we use them in ward projects, for instance for the design of the park."

Every five years, the Municipal Demarcation Board delimits wards in municipalities for electoral purposes. The process has to be concluded ideally not less than 10 months before the local government elections.

Job seekers’ application forms are available at the Kraaifontein civic centre and at libraries.