eThekwini approves R75m for Public Employment Programme
More than 3 000 workers who were part of the programme lost their jobs last year.
THE eThekwini Municipality has approved an adjusted budget of R75 million for the Public Employment Programme (PEP). This emerged at the post-media briefing held in eThekwini on March 13.
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Last year, the National Treasury 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.
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the programme was suspended due to financial constraints by the National Government.
An adjustment budget was approved at the full council meeting held by eThekwini Municipality last week.
“This allocation will allow us to continue with the PEP programme until the end of June this year. This confirms our unwavering commitment to job creation but also the fact that we value the work done by the participants who are part of this programme.
“Regarding the sourcing of security and cleaning services, after the municipality explored various options that proved to be unaffordable, it was proposed during the full council sitting that the City manager promptly explore the implementation of a social enterprises model.
“This model entails organising cleaners and security guards into cooperatives and social enterprises, and the municipality will source these services from them.
“As the leadership of the municipality, we fully support the decent work agenda and better treatment for vulnerable workers in our City. We have given the City manager and his team three months to explore these proposals so we become responsive to the plight of the cleaners and security guards,” said Kaunda.
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Regarding the matter raised by the MATUSA Union on the permanent employment of those who are part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), Kaunda said the CCMA conciliated the matter, but there was no resolution.
“The matter is now going on full arbitration so we should allow those processes to be concluded,” he said.
In an effort to curb water losses and ensure that residents are billed correctly, the municipality commenced with a new meter reading contract on December 13.
“Furthermore, two new meter reading platforms were also commissioned and implemented in the same period.
“The platforms bring improved technology where readings obtained and captured into the handheld terminals are also photographed with a time and date stamp. All meters found and read during the reading cycle are also logged on a GPS for future location by the meter reading and maintenance teams.”
He said all readings obtained are audited within the platforms that have business intelligence built into them to ensure readings being sent to the Revenue Management System for billing are accurate and reflect the true consumption of the customer.
“We are pleased to report that in the January/February cycle, over 500 000 properties were visited, of which 393 822 properties were billed on actual readings which is an improvement from 22% to 75.51%.
“The remaining 127 793 properties were estimated because meter readers could not obtain accurate readings, either due to the meter being broken, vandalised or just inaccessible,” he added.
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