The City of Johannesburg is hosting a series of 23 Jozi@Work regional forums across the city to brief co-operatives and community-based enterprises on work required by the municipality and municipal entities, for which they can make submissions.
The first forums under Jozi@Work – a programme designed to empower communities to partner with the city council in the delivery of services in their own neighbourhoods – are currently underway.
Another series of the forums will begin in the last week of January nex year.
Work will include waste management, providing food to its urban nutrition programmes, de-sludging chemical toilets, providing frontline support to the city’s water and power infrastructure, and resurfacing and maintaining roads, signage and road markings, and providing repairs and maintenance of the city council’s vehicle fleet.
“The regional forums represent a significant milestone towards the fulfilment of one of the Jozi@Work programme’s objectives, which is to transform community members from being job seekers to becoming job creators,” said Executive Mayor Parks Tau.
Through Jozi@Work, the city council has set aside work-package contracts to the value of just more than R1 billion that will be assigned to co-operatives and community-based enterprises, which will be supported by a network of capability support agents for technical and developmental assistance.
The inclusion of capability support agents in the Jozi@Work programme is to ensure that the community enterprises are properly trained to deliver quality services and they become sustainable businesses.
“Although one of Jozi@Work’s objectives is also to cut down on bureaucratic red tape and simplify the procurement process for Jozi@Work service providers, prospective participants are required to register as legal entities,” Tau added.
According to the city council, applicants are not required to be present at the regional forum to pitch for a work package, but they must live or work in the region.
A schedule of the regional forums that are underway is available on City of Joburg’s website and further sessions will be soon be available on the website.
