Jozi@Work gets more Soweto people working

08 December 2015

 

Small businesses and co-operatives stand to benefit handsomely from three Jozi@Work greening projects in Kliptown, Soweto.

 

The projects, which have a combined value of more than R540 000, were offered by the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (JOSHCO) during a Jozi@Work briefing session at the Klipspruit Library on Monday December 7.

JOSHCO is the City of Johannesburg’s social housing entity and Jozi@Work, the brainchild of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau, is a R3-billion mass empowerment and job creation initiative aimed at tackling poverty, unemployment and inequality in the city. The programme seeks to revolutionise the way the City does its business by awarding contracts to ordinary people and turning job-seekers into job creators.

Monday’s briefing session, which was attended by scores of township businesses and co-operatives, was part of the ongoing and sustained rollout of Jozi@Work packages, which has seen several projects running into several millions of rands being awarded to township businesses.In one of the work packages presented on Monday, JOSCHO is offering prospective contractors R292 000 to carry out greening services at the Pimville Golf Course over a 12-month period, starting from 1 January 2016.

The other two work packages – each valued at R125 600 – are for garden services at Kliptown Square and in and around Klipspruit. Region G Jozi@Work Coordinator Nomvula Dlame said the public’s response to Jozi@Work meetings had been overwhelming.

“It shows that there is a lot of untapped entrepreneurial flair in our communities. It’s obvious from these responses that local businesspeople are all geared up to grab business opportunities that the city is offering with both hands,” she said.

The closing date for the submission of forms is Monday December 21. All forms must be hand-delivered to the Jabulani Civic Centre by 1pm on the closing date.