Speaker, to the Deputy President, you have waxed lyrical about the public employment programmes and numbers of work opportunities they have provided. But let us be honest here, the EPWP is nothing more than a social security programme. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fact that the EPWP participants are paid at 55% of the minimum wage. Yet, you yourself, Deputy President, have said that the ANC believes that the national minimum wage is not a living wage but a significant milestone towards it. And yet, in an interesting plot twist, former Deputy Minister, Jeremy Cronin, admitted that if EPWP participants were to be paid at minimum wage, the number of people employed in the programme will decline by 50% due to lack of affordability. That is certainly
an interesting justification for noncompliance with your own laws.
So, this then begs the question: In a country where almost
10 million people are unemployed and where the minimum wage is recognised as a barrier to employment and not being implemented, why would government impose a national minimum wage on all other sectors including the private sector?
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: Our
understanding of this programme is that all participants that are there are given a stipend and are also afforded an opportunity to gain skills. They are offered training and that training is money. Government is paying money to train those participants in the different skills that are there, whether construction, plumbing and all that. [Interjections.] We considered this as a stipend as people participate as people try and gain the necessary skills. That is why it is a shot- term programme that takes an individual to a certain point where they can find gainful employment because of the skill in possession or start their own business. Thank you very much.