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26 April 2024
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President Cyril Ramaphosa launches Phase 5 of EPWP in East London Phase V of EPWP, BuffaloCity Stadium, East London
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President Cyril Ramaphosa officiated the 20 year celebration of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and launch the Phase V of the programme together with the Working on Fire – Kishugu Joint Venture in Buffalo City Municipality, Eastern Cape Province on Wednesday, 24 April 2024.
The EPWP is a nationwide Government programme to create work opportunities and income support to poor and unemployed people through the delivery of public and community assets and services, thereby contributing towards development. The programme is one of Government’s flagship Public Employment Programmes and has been implemented for the past 20 years since April 2004.
The EPWP is implemented within four sectors, namely; the Infrastructure Sector and the Non-State Sector coordinated by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure; Social Sector coordinated by the Department of Social Development; and the Environment and Culture Sector coordinated by Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
Since its inception the programme has created more than 14 million work opportunities across all the EPWP Sectors through more than 300 public bodies and Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) implementing the EPWP.
Firefighters from the Working on Fire Programme performed a march and drill for President Cyril Ramaphosa and a Huey helicopter and a Cessna spotter aircraft from the Working on Fire – Kishugu Joint Venture performed a ceremonial fly-past over the stadium as part of the EPWP launch celebrations.
The Kishugu Group of companies has successfully developed and implemented the EPWP Working on Fire Programme over the past 21 years to ensure that South Africa has a fully-fledged and fulltime wildland firefighting resource, spread across the country at 200 bases, to respond to the threat of unwanted wildfires.
Working on Fire has estimated that South Africa needs some 17,000 wildland firefighters to adequately cover the country in terms of the threat of unwanted wildland fires. Such planned expansion over five years could easily be achieved within the framework of the current Working on Fire Programme.
The launch of the Phase V implemented from 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2029, will be used to unveil millions of more work opportunities to benefit women, youth and poor households for inclusive growth, sustainable development, and community empowerment in the country.
EPWP to tackle nepotism, focus on skills, employment
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) will not be a breeding ground for nepotism and that it is dedicated to providing skills and jobs to the unemployed.
President Ramaphosa added, "Just very recently, we saw the great work done by the teams of Working on Fire in battling fires in the Western Cape. This is an EPWP environmental sector programme that has become so renowned across the world that the teams are called on by other countries to assist them with firefighting. The Prime Minister of Canada, when I met him at the United Nations said to me, Mr President, we want to thank you as South Africa for giving us the best Fire fighting teams in the world to help us fight our fires in Canada. In the Public Employment Programme, these firefighting teams are fit, young men and women, who are the best in the world who have put South Africa on a global map. Some of the young men and women of this programme have gone on to be trained as emergency response personnel, as members of the South African Police Force and even qualified as pilots."
Sources: The Presidency, Working on Fire
The EPWP is a nationwide Government programme to create work opportunities and income support to poor and unemployed people through the delivery of public and community assets and services, thereby contributing towards development. The programme is one of Government’s flagship Public Employment Programmes and has been implemented for the past 20 years since April 2004.
The EPWP is implemented within four sectors, namely; the Infrastructure Sector and the Non-State Sector coordinated by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure; Social Sector coordinated by the Department of Social Development; and the Environment and Culture Sector coordinated by Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
Since its inception the programme has created more than 14 million work opportunities across all the EPWP Sectors through more than 300 public bodies and Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) implementing the EPWP.
Firefighters from the Working on Fire Programme performed a march and drill for President Cyril Ramaphosa and a Huey helicopter and a Cessna spotter aircraft from the Working on Fire – Kishugu Joint Venture performed a ceremonial fly-past over the stadium as part of the EPWP launch celebrations.
The Kishugu Group of companies has successfully developed and implemented the EPWP Working on Fire Programme over the past 21 years to ensure that South Africa has a fully-fledged and fulltime wildland firefighting resource, spread across the country at 200 bases, to respond to the threat of unwanted wildfires.
Working on Fire has estimated that South Africa needs some 17,000 wildland firefighters to adequately cover the country in terms of the threat of unwanted wildland fires. Such planned expansion over five years could easily be achieved within the framework of the current Working on Fire Programme.
The launch of the Phase V implemented from 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2029, will be used to unveil millions of more work opportunities to benefit women, youth and poor households for inclusive growth, sustainable development, and community empowerment in the country.
EPWP to tackle nepotism, focus on skills, employment
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) will not be a breeding ground for nepotism and that it is dedicated to providing skills and jobs to the unemployed.
President Ramaphosa added, "Just very recently, we saw the great work done by the teams of Working on Fire in battling fires in the Western Cape. This is an EPWP environmental sector programme that has become so renowned across the world that the teams are called on by other countries to assist them with firefighting. The Prime Minister of Canada, when I met him at the United Nations said to me, Mr President, we want to thank you as South Africa for giving us the best Fire fighting teams in the world to help us fight our fires in Canada. In the Public Employment Programme, these firefighting teams are fit, young men and women, who are the best in the world who have put South Africa on a global map. Some of the young men and women of this programme have gone on to be trained as emergency response personnel, as members of the South African Police Force and even qualified as pilots."
Sources: The Presidency, Working on Fire
