South Africa’s socio-economic development will be forever
hampered unless there is a commitment from both the public
and private sectors to develop skills and create employment
opportuniti es. The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is
one of government’s fl agship initi ati ves to bridge the gap between
the growing economy and the large numbers of unskilled and
unemployed people who have yet to parti cipate fully in South
Africa’s economy and earn a living.
The EPWP involves creati ng temporary work opportuniti es for the
unemployed using public sector expenditure. It builds on existi ng best-
practi ce government infrastructure and social programmes either by
deepening their labour absorpti on or extending them. In terms of the
process involved, provinces, municipaliti es and public bodies identi fy
and locate suitable projects and issue tenders for EPWP contracts as
they do for other projects.
The emphasis is on relati vely unskilled work opportuniti es combined with
training, educati on or skills development, with the aim of increasing the
ability of people to earn an income once they leave the programme.
Contribute to a nation at work
Deputy Minister of
Public Works Hendrieta
Bogopane-Zulu
Minister of Public Works
Mr Geoff Doidge
Public Works
Department:
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
E xpanded P ublic W orks P rogramme
B u s i n e s s G u i d e 2 0 1 0
To address this investment
in social infrastructure, the
government has decided that we
should launch an expanded public
works programme. This will ensure
that we draw signifi cant numbers of
the unemployed into productive work,
and that these workers gain skills
while they work, and therefore take an
important step to get out of the pool of
those who are marginalised.”
President Mbeki formally
announcing the Expanded
Public Works Programme
in his State of the Nati on
Address in February 2003.
All government bodies and parastatals are required to
make a systematic effort to target the unskilled unemployed
Focus on sectors
Th