EFF Gauteng statement on the corrupted EPWP used by Panyaza Lesufi to empower ANC volunteers in Preparation for 2024 General Elections

14 May 2023

The Economic Freedom Fighters Gauteng strongly condemns the use of the Expanded Public Work Programme (EPWP) to empower ANC volunteers towards the 2024 General Elections.

Premier Panyaza Lesufi has launched the bogus Bonde Ke Botho Gauteng's Clean and Green Campaign program which will see people registered in the government payroll today in Dobsonville Stadium. According to Panyaza, this is 12 months (from now until the 2024

General Elections) clean-up and waste collection program for the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment.

While it needs not to be mentioned that this is a haphazard and unplanned scheme where scarce government resources are used to counter the Andres Tatane Clean-up Campaign of the EFF, the process is irregular and illegal in that there was no proper recruitment processes.

In fact, it is ANC volunteers that are mobilized and empowered for electioneering and claiming non-existent victories using state resources.

After launching this program, Panyaza Lesufi has ordered municipalities to absorb these ANC volunteers in their workforce. The City of Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality is expected to absorb 1600 of these recruits in complete disregard Of the Human Resource process and procedures of the municipality.

This is an attempt to use the corrupt syndicate of processing employment at a provincial level using political patronage and imposing it on municipalities which already have waste department employees and operate within set budget parameters. This an illegal process and the EFF rejects it with the contempt it deserves.

This electioneering was never part of any plans and does not fall within the provincial government budget priorities, it is just a publicity stunt hoping to rescue the ANC from the inevitable, come 2024 General Elections.

The use of state resources for electioneering is symptomatic of a liberation movement which has reached its expiry date. This creation of unsustainable jobs that last for 6 to 12 months only serves to expose a government that thrives on preying on the deplorable conditions of the people by entrenching state dependency where people are expected to be thankful for crumbs that fall from the table.

This program is no different from the one of crime prevention wardens where people who are for 2 months are to combat crime in the province. Similar to the R350 Covid-19 grants which vanished after the 2019 Local Government Elections.

The creation of these minuscule jobs to clean townships shows how little the ANC thinks of black people. Communities do understand the importance of keeping their environment clean.

Instead, we need the capacitation of municipal waste management departments, to provide effective and sustainable refuse collection services, and the people will have no challenge keeping their surroundings hygienic. Young people are desperate for skills development and sustainable jobs, not this aimless waste collection programs.

What is also visible here is that the ANC has no conception of the need to build state capacity and a state-led massive industrial development program in order to create sustainable jobs and skilled professionals.

What the government should be doing is to focus the resources at its disposal to first strengthen the already ailing state-owned entities like PRASA, Transnet, and setting up of water infrastructure companies, housing and road construction companies, pharmaceutical company and manufacturing companies.

The state must also invest in small businesses and industries that already exist across the province. Instead, the ANC is obsessed with bloating the public servant sector at the expense of true industrial development. A model that has proven a failure across the country and the continent.

The EFF vehemently rejects this illegal, irregular and desperate attempt by Panyaza Lesufi and ANC government to mitigate the inevitable of election. There is no amount of manipulation of the systems that will help them return to govern the people they have abused for many years. The ANC has been found out and the people of Gauteng the country understand very well that the EFF is the only alternative that can lead them out of this misery.

The EFF encourages the people of Gauteng to come out in their numbers and register to vote EFF in the coming General Elections.

Issued by Nkululeko Dunga, Provincial Chairperson, EFF, 15 May 2023