Jozi@Work speaks to Pennyville
28-01-2015
Scores of residents of Pennyville, just outside Soweto, and surrounding areas who missed out on the City of Johannesburg’s Jozi@Work Awareness Workshops late last year got another opportunity to come on board on Monday.
The programme with work packages valued at just over R1 billion has reached a stage where various regions are already briefing cooperatives and small community based enterprise on available opportunities for them.
Most of the community based organisations are those who were assisted by the City to register as legal entities through the Jozi@Work Registration Drive. This was to enable them to qualify for participation in the Jozi@Work programme, which is designed for communities to partner with the City in the delivery of services in their respective regions.
Monday’s information-sharing workshop in Pennyville, near the New Canada railway station, was graced by Member of the Mayoral Committee for Development Planning and Urban Management Cllr Roslynn Greeff, who encouraged residents to make use of this glorious opportunity to better their lives and living environments.
Former Generations actress Sophie Ndaba and both television and radio personality Penny Lebyane, also showed up to give support to the Jozi@Work programme.
Jozi@Work was launched in September last year by Johannesburg Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau to create opportunities for residents to partner with the City in the delivery of municipal services in their own neighbourhoods. This would ensure that they cease to be job seekers and become creators of employment for themselves.
The concept is aimed at addressing the triple challenge facing South Africa: unemployment, poverty and inequality.
The City has further established a network of Capability Support Agents (CSAs) to aid cooperatives and small businesses to ensure they have the required tools to carry out their tasks and run sustainable entities.
Mayoral Spokesperson Phindile Chauke says: “It was encouraging to see the interest in Jozi@Work on the faces of the Pennyville community members.”
“They also got an opportunity to hear that they have not missed the boat to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Jozi@Work programme,” Chauke says.
The City is currently finalising contracts with CSAs, which are expected to be in place by the end of January.
Chauke says: “The CSAs form a significant part of the Jozi@Work programme. Once a small enterprise is contracted, then the relevant CSA comes on board in the role of supervising contractor to ensure quality work is delivered to expectations standards.”
The roll-out of the Jozi@Work package contracts to cooperatives and other community based companies is set to begin in February.