Sunday Tribune reports that Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has admitted there were flaws in eThekwini’s recruitment of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) participants after allegations of corruption emerged.
In March, it was reported how some senior officials within the municipality had filled EPWP vacancies with ghost workers who were paid more than R1.2m for work they never did. Nxesi and deputy minister Jeremy Cronin said the challenges prompted the department to review its recruitment processes. Last week in Port Shepstone, they launched the programme’s new recruitment guidelines designed to curb corruption. The same guidelines will be applied across all municipalities, as opposed to previous practice when they differed. The new requirements include open advertisement of the programme, and allowing equal access to opportunities for all in the community. Nxesi said the intention was to guide communities, councillors and municipalities to ensure that the programme was conducted in a fair and transparent manner and added: “The abuse of recruitment of EPWP participants for narrow political scores is unethical and unacceptable regardless of political affiliation.” Cronin encouraged the public to report corruption and manipulation of the recruitment processes.
- Read this report by Siphelele Buthelezi in full at Sunday Tribune
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