Community-based Public Works Programme

PUBLIC WORKS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
30 May 2001
COMMUNITY BASED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Mr ME Hlengwa

Documents handed out:
Department of Public Works: National Public Works Programme (see Appendix)

SUMMARY
The emphasis of the Community Based Public Works Programme is the alleviation of poverty especially in rural areas. The key is to empower local communities to become self-sustaining. The Department is making efforts to give these communities the infrastructure that they require to become self-sustaining by creating jobs, starting community projects and training people. The Committee raised concerns that the Programme might be under-funded given the size of the task at hand. Many questions were asked about tenders being granted to contractors fronting as Black Economic Empowerment candidates when these firms are actually owned by larger corporations. Members also engaged with the Department on the unequal allocation of funds in the provinces for the Community Public Works Programme.

MINUTES
Community Based Public Works Programme (CBPWP)
Mr Bongani More (Chief Director, CBPWP) briefed the Committee on the Community Based Public Works Programme. The CBPWP is an RDP lead programme and its main objectives are job creation, asset creation, skills development and infrastructure provision. Some of its projects include the provision of Community Production Centres to facilitate productive infrastructure upgrading and the establishment of Multi-purpose Centres to assist in rural service delivery. The Department's priorities for 2001 include spending their entire budget, streamlining their business processes, enhancing capacity, to implement a concerted rural development strategy and to assist district municipalities in capacity building. Mr More was optimistic that they would create 40 000 temporary employment opportunities and 3000 sustainable jobs. Of these jobs, 50% of the temporary positions and 15% of the sustainable positions must be for women and youth respectively. Provision has also been made so that a minimum of 3% of the jobs must be for the disabled.

Discussion
The Chairperson was pleased that the Department has developed a programme to address poverty in South Africa. He felt that the emphasis should be on providing infrastructure to communities so that they would be responsible for sustaining themselves.

Ms Shilubane (ANC) asked why there is a zero budget for the Northern Cape for the 2002- 2003 financial year. Further, she asked what influenced the allocation. She felt that the programme was aimed at creating jobs for rural people and hence it should be developed in other Provinces.

Mr Chikane (ANC) was concerned about the use of black people as fronts in soliciting government contracts and permits for business purposes. Mr Chikane pointed out that Gauteng Province received the least allocation of funds despite it having the largest growing squatter camps. He warned that the Department should remember that people are moving from rural to urban areas in search of employment.

Ms Lydia Bici (Department of Public Works) said that the Department has recently undertaken a tour to India with the Minister. They visited a company with expertise in the field of irrigation. The Department realised that water resources have not been managed well in South Africa. She stressed that the issue of water conservation should be raised with the Department of Agriculture. Ms Bici explained that India has developed very cost-effective methods of developing their infrastructure. Plastic is used in construction instead of steel. In addition to being cheaper than steel, the plastic is recyclable and environmentally friendly.

Ms Bici also commented on the allocation of funds to the provinces. She said that when funds are allocated towards the provinces, more funds should be allocated towards rural development. The Department has developed a targeting formula, which examines rural areas and the availability of resources. In developing their formula the Department made use of indices obtained from the Central Statistics of South Africa. Pockets of poverty are being targeted in rural and urban areas.

Ms Bici stated that they are still grappling with the issue of building access roads into rural areas. Instead of constructing many poorly built roads the Department is building fewer sustainable ones. However, she added that "fronting" remains a general problem. Public Works is experiencing this phenomenon particularly from construction companies. Bigger corporations own many so-called small black businesses. The Department is trying to address this problem through the Community Based Public Works Programme. This programme allows for local authorities to allocate contracts to local contractors. The Department is also relying on the local communities to assist them in identifying companies that are fronting. These companies will be blacklisted so as to prevent them from accessing government contracts in the future. Criminal prosecution is also a possible sanction since the alleged companies are defeating the aims of black economic empowerment.

Mr Radebe (ANC) believed that the allocated funds were not adequate to address poverty. He felt that representations should be made to the National Treasury to increase the R 374 million that has been allocated. He congratulated the Department on their Clean and Green programme. This programme attempts to reduce dumpsites in townships.

Ms Majodina (ANC) asked who was responsible for prescribing the size of the Multi Purpose Centres and who owned such complexes. Further, she asked what was going to be done with old government buildings that have become white elephants. Finally she asked who decides to build clinics and who is responsible for implementing plans to prevent the roll over of funds.

Mr Moonsamy (ANC) said he felt that the CBPWP Programme is inadequate to eliminate the problem of poverty in South Africa. He commented that rainfall in South Africa is plentiful yet most of it is lost to the sea instead of being siphoned off into dams. He insisted that the use of watertanks and gutters should also be considered for development in rural areas.

Mr Opperman (DP) wanted to know whether the funding allocations being made by the Department were based on any specific applications.

Mr Sigwela (ANC) said despite the concern about the allocation of funds to various provinces, he was pleased with work of the Department in trying to eliminate poverty in rural areas. He was especially impressed with programmes providing training and employment for youth and women - predominantly small scale farming and baking. Mr Sigwela said that these programmes are currently taking place in Ingonyama in the Tsolo District in the Eastern Cape and are definitely contributing to local economic development. Further, he commented that NGO's had originally assisted with the creation of the programmes but were now excluded from the programmes. He asked why this was the case.

The Department noted Mr Sigwela's comment about the exclusion of NGO's.

Ms Bici (Department of Public Works) agreed that the funds allocated to the Department would not necessarily create massive public works. Sje said that they are trying to change the situation in rural areas by using local labour in order to prevent the emigration of people from rural to urban areas. The Department needs donor and private sector funding. Partnerships have been formed with the Industrial Development Corporation to finance emerging farmers. Private financial institutions have also been approached to gain access to funds.

Mr Bongani More explained that district councils and relevant government Departments are involved in the determination of the size of the Multi-Purpose Centres. He said that some judgement problems may exist and that there was room for expansion when the funds become available. District councils also participate in discussions determining where the funds should go because of their proximity to the communities.

Mr Mkaliphi (ANC) stressed that local communities should undertake less technical projects themselves rather than contracting consultants to perform these projects. He said that this approach is in line with the RDP principles because consultants are expensive. He felt that a system should be in place which eliminates the use of consultants.

Dr Nel (NNP) pointed out that almost 80% of hospital beds are occupied by patients with HIV related diseases. If the trend continues, within three years there will be no more beds available.

Mr Chikane (ANC) suggested that army camps being closed by the government could be utilised to accommodate these patients.

Mr More stated that the issue of capacity building in district councils is being addressed. He added that monitoring systems have been put in place and he invited the Committee to check on the Departments progress.

The meeting was adjourned and due to time constraints the report on the London tour would be considered in the following meeting.

Appendix:
Community Based Public Works Programme - one of the RDP lead projects
Objectives: job creation, asset creation skills development and infrastructure provision.

THREE PHASES OF EVOLUTION
Pilot Project Phase: 1994-1996.
Realigned CBPWP: 1998-mid 1999.
Realigned with new dimensions: mid 1999- to date.

CBPWP IN 2001 TWO MAJOR COMPONENTS, NAMELY:
1. PIA PROGRAMME
27 DISTRICT MUNICIPALITIES IN EC, FS, KZN, MP, NP AND NW
2. STRATEGIC PROJECTS
IN PARTNERSHIPS WITH KEY STAKEHOLDERS AND IMPLEMENTED BY IDT

STRATEGIC PROJECTS
1. Community Production Centres: Provision of the productive infrastructure upgrading components in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture.
2. Multi-purpose Centres: one-stop shops for rural service delivery.
3. Clean and Green Programme: a community based waste management programme, in partnership with the South African Breweries.
4. HIV/AIDS Infrastructure Support Programme: to offset the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS e.g. the upgrading of local clinics which are in dire need of repair.
5. Youth Working for Environmental Accessibility: training and employing youth to make public properties accessible to the disabled.
6. KZN Cholera Response Programme: to respond to Cholera outbreak in KZN, in partnership with KZN Department of Health.

PRIORITIES IN 2001
1. Spend all budget: avoid roll-overs
2. Streamline business processes and enhance capacity.
3. Policy development: massive Publc Works Programmes - consolidated rural development strategy (infrastructure provision, employment creation etc).
4. Mobilise partnerships with private sector and NGO's to enhance delivery.
5. Rural roads: key to improved integrated sustainable development initiatives and local economic development.
6. Capacitation of new district municipalities: the effects of demarcation have resulted in an increase in the number of District Municipalities funded by the CBPWP from 20 to 27

TARGETS IN 2001
· 40 000 temporary employment opportunities
· 3000 sustainable employment minimum of 50% of the employed to be women
· minimum of 15% of the employed to be youth
· minimum of 1% and 3% of the employed to be disabled
· 400 sustainable community assets

RESULTANT INVESTMENT WITHIN PROVINCES

TOTAL ALLOCATION: 2001/2 R374m
EC - R111,8m, FS - R9,2m, KZN - R99,8m, MP - R31m, NP - R79,2m, GP - R0,9m, NC - R1,5m, NW - R11,8m, WC - R3,2m, National R25,3m

TOTAL ALLOCATION: 2002/3 R374m
EC - R110,1m, FS - R10m, KZN - R101,9m, MP - R26,6m, NP - R89,2m, GP - R1,2m, NC - R0m, NW - R13,6m, WC - R1,2m, National R20m