News24 reports that, despite resistance to the decision to cancel the Jozi@Work youth employment programme, Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba maintains the project only served a select few.
In principle, programmes which married service delivery objectives with work opportunities were good, he said during his first ever State of the City address on Wednesday. “But like so many good principles, the Jozi@Work programme had a dark underworld, because when middlemen get awarded multi-million rand contracts to run these projects, they become indebted through their newly achieved wealth.” These “overnight millionaires” then selected people who would benefit from the work opportunities. Ward councillors were said to have contributed to the “mess” by helping to choose who benefited from the programme. According to Mashaba, there was no official indigent list to work off. He said his administration would revamp the programme to cut the middlemen out of the equation. Work opportunities would be fairly allocated on a rotational basis, using a legitimate indigent register.
- Read this report by Mpho Raborife in full at News24
- Read too, Joburg to restore dignity to residents through job creation: Mashaba, at Engineering News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page