Jozi@Work set to create more work in Region G

09 March 2016

 

Several job opportunities are expected to be created in the City of Johannesburg’s Region G in the next few weeks after Johannesburg Water and the Environmental Health Department presented one Jozi@Work package each at the Lenasia Civic Centre on Tuesday March 8.

 

Region G includes areas such as Naturena, Eldorado Park, Thembelihle, Zakariyya Park, Drieziek, Lenasia, Orange Farm, Lawley, Grasmere and Poortjie.

Jozi@Work is a R3-billion job creation and mass empowerment programme initiated by Johannesburg Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau about three years ago to tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality in the city.

The programme empowers ordinary residents to be job creators instead of being job-seekers by creating opportunities for them to partner with the City in the provision of services such as cleaning, gardening, painting, waste removal, landscaping, to mention a few. Dozens of residents of Lenasia and nearby informal settlements attended Tuesday’s briefing session.

Through its work package, Johannesburg Water – the City’s water and sanitation services entity – invites skilled individuals to come forward and apply for the work package, which entails cleaning and painting of water pipes, assessing risk and cleaning the chambers that house the water pipes.

The work package also involves the cutting of overgrown grass and maintenance of the chambers. Successful applicants will be paid in accordance with specified rates, which are legislated. Ebrahim Hajee, Joburg Water’s Region D Depot Manager, said 10 similar packages had already been awarded in the region in the past few months.

“Cleaning the chambers before repairing them [after a burst pipe] is time-consuming. We found that communities benefit from such projects,” Hajee said.

The Environmental Health Department’s representative in Region G, Fatima Cordom, presented a grass-cutting work package at the briefing. The work will be carried out under the cleaning and clearing of properties by-law.

“This package is a once-off. It covers nine vacant stands. There are a lot of vacant stands in the region. We move in if we don’t get a response from their owners to clean up. After cleaning up, we send them the bill,” Cordom said.

Prosper Ndlovu, who lives in the nearby informal settlement, said he was ready to start work immediately should he be appointed. An experienced painter and handyman, Ndlovu said the packages were most welcome, especially for people like him struggling to find regular work.

Applicants for both work packages have until Tuesday March 15 to submit their expression of interest forms.