Jozi@Work is open for business
04-03-2015
What for most had seemed a pie in the sky or inconceivable only a year ago has become reality.
Cooperatives and small businesses that have registered for Jozi@Work over the past few months can now apply for municipal work packages made available under the City of Johannesburg’s R1 billion mass empowerment and job-creation programme, a mayoral initiative aimed at addressing unemployment, poverty and inequalities in the city.
Johannesburg’s Region G on Wednesday December 3 became one of the first to open the work-package application process at the Zakariyya Park Hall, near Lenasia, in the south of Johannesburg, during which companies and cooperatives that had been registered for the programme filled in forms for consideration for appointment as service providers under the initiative.
Officials of two of the City’s entities (MEs) – Pikitup and Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo – and two departments – Health and Social Development, and Community Development – handed out Jozi@Work bid forms for prospective service providers.
“From here, we will go through all the applications to ensure that the entities comply with the requirements of the specific area of work they have applied for,” said Zodwa Maseko, Jozi@Work Coordinator in Region G.
Maseko said the region was ready to work with the newly-formed companies under Jozi@Work – which is expected to create almost 40 000 employment opportunities in its third year – as early as beginning of January.
The work packages that were ready to be rolled out were the environmental cleaning services, City Park (grass cutting and landscaping), social development (agriculture and farming), and community development.
“This is the beginning of phase one,” she said. “Phase 2 will be implemented later in the year as it requires technical expertise that is not readily available. This involves work in areas such as in construction and information technology (IT).”
To ensure that the work to be provided will be of a high standard and quality, the city has established the Capability Support Agent whose mandate is to assist the newly formed entities with issues such as invoicing and payment of suppliers.
Over the past few months, the City encouraged and facilitated the formation of cooperatives and community-based businesses. Thousands of residents across the city have since registered their entities for Jozi@Work.
The essence of the project is contract the registered entities to carry out municipal work that otherwise would have been done by the municipality.
Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau has said that the Jozi@Work budget will increase to almost R4 billion in the 2016-2017 financial year.