News24 reports that the National Treasury has cut funding for the Public Employment Programme (PEP) in eThekwini, prompting the city to immediately terminate 3,541 of the more than 6,000 temporary employees hired through the programme.

In a statement this week, the city’s spokesperson Gugu Sisilana advised: “With the Public Employment Programme in its third and final year of implementation, the budget for 2023/24 financial year was revised by National Treasury from the originally gazetted R263 million to R141 million. This significantly affected the municipality’s ability to retain the majority of beneficiaries. Those who have been retained are expected to work until June 2024, when the programme ends. This is indeed a very disappointing development that is beyond the municipality's control." She added that the municipality had been "hard at work exploring various solutions to minimise the impact on beneficiaries" and would continue exploring avenues to resuscitate the programme, including engaging with the National Treasury to request additional budget. On Thursday, the SA Municipal Workers’ Union’s (Samwu’s) eThekwini regional secretary, Xolani Dube, said: “Samwu calls on the eThekwini Municipality to reconsider its decision and take appropriate steps to employ all the employees permanently as the city needs more workers to clean and make our town attractive to tourists and its citizens.” He said the union was demanding the permanent retention of all workers who formed part of the PEP.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nkosikhona Duma at News24

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