Mail & Guardian reports that as the department of co-operative governance tries to iron out the kinks in its Community Work Programme, the flaws in the CWP will be under scrutiny at an impending court battle.
This week, the Seriti Institute — one of the two implementing agents that piloted the CWP at its inception — will take on the department in the Pretoria high court. Seriti’s court application deals with alleged irregularities in the department’s procurement of implementing agents, the nonprofit organisations paid to administer the programme in municipalities. Furthermore, an affidavit reveals that the CWP will no longer be run by the department but by a separate legal entity — a plan meant to address the flaws in the programme. The decision is part of the government’s efforts provide one million work opportunities by March 2020. The CWP was launched by the government in 2010 as part of its efforts to address poverty resulting from stubborn unemployment by offering a “safety net” to people of working age. The programme has 256,000 participants and a total budget of R13-billion. Last month, thousands of CWP workers marched to Luthuli House, demanding to be paid a R3,500 minimum wage. They said that the R780 stipend they received each month was not enough for them to get by. They also demanded that the department should cut out the programme’s implementing agents. Court papers lay bare the details of skirmishes between the department and its implementing agents over alleged corruption.
- Read the full original of the above report by Sarah Smit at Mail & Guardian
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