Cape Town: Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson will tomorrow host the Minister in the Presidency from the United Republic of Tanzania. The engagement will focus on South Africa’s largest poverty alleviation initiative, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
According to South African Government News Agency, the Tanzanian delegation will include senior government officials, private sector representatives, and academics. They will gather under the theme: ‘Transformative impact of the EPWP through entrepreneurship and skills development’. This collaboration highlights the growing recognition of the EPWP on the African continent and globally.
The EPWP, established by the Cabinet, aims to create work opportunities across four sectors: infrastructure, non-state, environment and culture, and social sectors. It employs labour-intensive methods to include a significant number of participants in the programme.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure conducted a strategic review of the EPWP’s first phase, which was presented to the Cabinet in June 2008. This review, based on extensive evaluations, offered key recommendations to enhance the programme’s scale and impact in its second phase.
Although the EPWP exceeded its target of one million work opportunities ahead of schedule, certain constraints have been identified that limited further expansion.