Jozi@Work gets more Orange Farm residents working

23 May 2016

 

At least 16 people from Orange Farm in the City of Johannesburg's Region G will be guaranteed gainful employment for the next three years.

 

This is thanks to Jozi@Work, a R3-billion mass empowerment and job creation programme championed by Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau to address poverty, unemployment and inequality facing the City.

Every year since 2014, the City’s entities and departments set aside a percentage of their annual budgets for Jozi@Work to afford ordinary residents the opportunity to provide the metro with a range of municipal services – work that would traditionally be carried out by big and established companies.

More than 5 000 small township and co-operatives have been registered for the programme. Work provided under the programme includes grass cutting, landscaping, gardening, sweeping, refuse removal, maintenance and repairs, to mention a few. At a Jozi@Work briefing session in Orange Farm on Friday May 20, Joburg Water, the City's water and sanitation infrastructure provision entity, announced a three-year R833 000 work package involving the repairing of pavements and kerbs damaged by contractors working on water-related infrastructure.

The work package will be awarded to two co-operatives, which will in turn employ eight people each. The co-operatives will carry out the work on an as-and-when-required basis throughout the region from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2019.

“The contractors who will be awarded the work package will be obliged to utilise locally based labour,” Joburg Water’s Ebrahim Hajee told the audience of about 60 residents at the Orange Farm Multipurpose Community Centre. Many were middle-aged men and women but there was also a significant presence of youth.

Among the young people in attendance were close friends Mantsho and Poppy, both 26, who have lived in Orange Farm most of their lives. They took down notes as Hajee made his presentation.

“We’re both unemployed matriculants and are hoping to get work and earn a living,” said Mantsho.

Mokhethi Moloi, 58, a building sub-contractor who lives in Ward 9, said: “If skilled and semi-skilled small operators like me can be supported to work together in co-operatives, I’m sure we can help unemployed residents to learn new skills while earning a living.”

Innocent Mulwanndwa of the City’s Region G office encouraged residents to form co-operatives and business entities and register them.

“The main aim of these work packages is to help small businesses to grow and create employment for other people in the communities,” he said.

Mulwanndwa said beneficiaries of the work package would have the full backing of the Community Support Agent [CSA].

“This includes both material and advisory support. The CSA will work with the contractors to carry out the work successfully,” he said.

Similar presentations will be made at the following dates and venues in the same region:

• Tuesday May 24: Finetown Multipurpose Centre;

• Wednesday May 25: Lenasia Cricket Stadium; and

• Thursday May 26: Zakariyya Park Community Hall.

For further information, please contact Ntombi Maseko on 071 313 7403.