COSATU welcomes the halt to the cancellation of the contracts for 67 000 CWP workers

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the halt to the cancellation of the contracts for 67 000 Community Works Programme (CWP) workers.  This will provide badly needed comfort for these vulnerable workers and their families.

We are pleased that COSATU and its affiliate, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union’s intervention with the Minister for COGTA, Mr. HF Hlabisa, as well as the Minister for Finance, Mr. E. Godongwana, has borne fruit with their progressive announcement that funds have been secured to cover these workers’ salaries for the months of January to March 2025 and that further engagements will take place for the new financial year.  We are heartened that government has responded to COSATU’s concerns.  Now a progressive longer-term funding solution for the April 2025/ 26 Budget is needed.

COSATU was deeply distressed by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)’s December announcement that 67 000 CWP workers above the age of 55 years would be removed from the CWP from the end of January.  This would have plunged these workers into absolute misery in an economy with a 41.9% unemployment rate.  The majority of these workers are women in rural areas and townships where jobs are virtually non-existent and many of them do not qualify for the Old Age Grant.  As much as CWP wages are a pittance, ending them would have subjected these workers to starvation.

With unemployment at such dangerously high levels, it is sacrosanct that government and the private sector treat it as our single greatest national crisis.  It is a ticking time bomb that if not decisively tackled threatens the entire nation.  Government must ramp up, not cut back on public employment programmes.  It is beyond scandalous that the Presidential Employment Stimulus has been slashed from R36 billion two years ago to R3.5 billion currently.

An overhaul of the various public employment programmes needs to be expedited to ensure that matters of wastage, corruption and profiteering are dealt with and to ensure they offer participants the skills, training and experience needed to find jobs not only in the economy of today but also the jobs of the future.  A hybrid approach is required to ensure they offer a safety net for those unlikely to find work and an employment path for those able to.  No public employment programme must be allowed to pay below the National Minimum Wage.  A repositioning is needed to ensure they help create jobs and spur emerging economic sectors and not simply act as a source of cheap labour for broke municipalities.

Public employment programmes should not be reduced to a bean counting exercise by comfortable mandarins in air-conditioned offices.  They are an investment in the nation’s youth and destitute.  They are key to providing relief and solidarity with the poor.  If done well, they will unlock badly needed economic growth and help millions enter the labour market and find their way to decent work and a living wage.  The nation cannot afford to skimp when it comes to 12 million unemployed.  Where budgets must be reduced; the poor, unemployed and vulnerable must be protected and not sacrificed.

Issued by COSATU

Matthew Parks (Parliamentary Coordinator)

Mobile: 082 785 0687

Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za