The Zibambele Project was a labour-intensive road maintenance programme which was initiated by the DoT. A total of 40 000 contractors had been provided with employment opportunities as at July 2010. The programme started before the inception of the EPWP Phase 1. It was reported that beneficiaries on the programme earned R470 per month. Some participants had been part of the programme for longer than two years. Despite the fact that there had been replacements since the inception of the programme, it was reported that there was no clearly defined exit strategy and some participants had stayed on the programme for longer than two years. The DoT explained that, since the Zibambele programme had been in existence prior to the inception of the EPWP, its beneficiaries did not have to exit the programme after 24 months as was the case with the EPWP. There was also no age restriction for participants.