Johannesburg, Thursday, 02 January 2017

JOZI@WORK CANCELLATION AN ATTACK ON THE POOR

The cancellation of the Jozi@Work program by Mr Mashaba is a direct attack on the thousands of Joburg residents who were unemployed but found jobs through the introduction of the Jozi@Work program. Today is a sad day for over 8000 workers and 112 cooperatives/local companies in Johannesburg.

Over the last three years the ANC Government in the City of Johannesburg took a bold and unprecedented step to implement a groundbreaking community driven service delivery program called the Jozi@Work program. Through this program the city created thousands of jobs for the unemployed residents of Johannesburg.

The Jozi@Work program was presented to and approved by Council as a groundbreaking program that would create jobs while directly involving communities in the delivery of some municipal services.

The Jozi@Work program is one of those programs that were subjected to transparent and public processes in the appointment of Capacity Support Agents and the cooperatives participating in the program.

Through Jozi@Work the ANC government put over R3 billion rand aside for the benefit of cooperatives and local companies. The move by Mr Mashaba will inevitably take away this money from the poor and unemployed residents of Johannesburg who had found work in the program.

Regional Forums were used especially for the appointment of cooperatives to participate in the program. During our tenure no evidence was presented to us to prove that community members were required to produce ANC membership cards before admission to the program. It is therefore, irresponsible for Mr Mashaba to say that the Jozi@Work program was meant for ANC card-carrying members. The program was for every resident of Johannesburg.

The program had a number of Capacity Support Agents who were appointed to work directly with the cooperatives and provide them with support to implement their work package. The role of the CSA was to transfer skills such as financial (cash-flow) management, quality and stock control, the development of Bills of Quantities among others.

In addition to this the CSA handled all invoicing and payments, made sure work is done to quality standards and also made sure co-operatives/ companies can rent equipment and purchase the raw materials they needed to do the work. The co-operative/ micro enterprise would only pay for these things out of the money the City pays for the work package to be done. This was done to ensure that the city gets value for money from the appointed cooperatives and local companies.

The Capability Support Agents were required to provide training, advice and support as well as access to low-cost loans to make sure co-operatives & community based companies can grow beyond the programme and do business with customers other than the City and/or serve the City as a contractor through the ordinary procurement process.

In light of these developments, the ANC Greater Johannesburg Region puts forward the following:

- Mr Mashaba must not terminate the employees currently employed in the Jozi@Work program.

- Mr Masahaba must live up to his commitment to employ community members particularly those currently in the Jozi@Work program directly in the city.

- Mr Mashaba and the City of Johannesburg must ensure that opportunities in a rebranded Jozi@Work program continue to be subjected to transparent, open and public processes.

It is also absurd for Mr Mashaba to say that the City under the ANC administration never had an indigent register. We ask Mr Mashaba to contact the relevant city officials to get the database of indigent residents.

Statement issued on behalf of the ANC Joburg REC by Jolidee Matongo, 3 February 2017