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The Chairperson of the Select Committee on Public Infrastructure and Minister in the Presidency, Mr Rikus Badenhorst, said the decision by Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson to take Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) recruitment onto the SA Youth Mobi platform represents an important shift in how government should create opportunities for unemployed South Africans.
Mr Badenhorst said that for too long allegations of political gatekeeping, patronage and abuse in the allocation of opportunities have been made against the EPWP. The Minister’s nationwide EPWP listening tours heard these concerns directly. The answer cannot be another policy document. It must be reform that changes how the programme actually works.
Digitising recruitment begins doing exactly that. By making opportunities visible and applying rules-based matching according to factors such as location, education and eligibility, the space for the politically connected middleman deciding who gets an opportunity and who does not is reduced.
Importantly, the SA Youth Mobi platform is zero-rated, meaning unemployed young people do not require airtime or data to access it. That matters in a country where the cost of simply looking for work can itself become a barrier.
But the more significant reform is what Minister Macpherson is trying to achieve through Working on Infrastructure. EPWP cannot remain a revolving door where people enter a short-term programme, perform temporary work and emerge no more employable than when they started.
Working on Infrastructure seeks to change that model through longer-duration participation, practical infrastructure repair and maintenance experience, mentorship, training, certification and pathways towards recognised occupational opportunities and ultimately permanent employment.
Mr Badenhorst welcomes this direction. “South Africa does not need government programmes that simply improve participation statistics. We need programmes that improve people’s prospects,” he said.
Parliamentary oversight will take place over implementation, accessibility and whether these promised pathways actually translate into sustainable employment. Reform must be measured by results.
But the principle is correct: remove political discretion, open access, teach marketable skills and give participants a genuine pathway beyond EPWP, Mr Badehorst said.
“Minister Macpherson is demonstrating that public employment programmes can be reformed rather than simply defended. Government should not merely give somebody a temporary job. It should give them the skills and opportunity to build a future.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
