Eastern Cape’s EPWP offers desperate job seekers hope

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Desperation for work in the Eastern Cape has reached an all-time high, with thousands of people braving long queues in the hope of securing some form of employment.

Last week, thousands of desperate job seekers in Gqeberha slept outside the City Hall, some arriving as late as midnight, hoping to be the first in line to hand in their application forms for the required 150 vacancies under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

One of the applicants says “My plea is that I hope that by submitting my form I hope that I get a job. I even broke my show cause of the scuffle that happened here, others even fainted cause of the heat.”

Desperation among job seekers in the Eastern Cape

Desperate for a job, another applicant adds, “We want jobs, it’s not nice to stay home while we are hungry. That’s why we are here but after waiting so many hours and some of us did not even get application forms. We were told that only 150 people would get jobs, how will so little jobs cater to so many people, can you see the number of people here? they are taking us for a fool.”

“I’ve been here as early as 7 am this morning because I desperately need a job and that’s why I am here. At home my mom is not working, in fact, I left her hungry at home. She is hoping that I get this job so that we can have food at home, it’s been really tough,” the job seeker explains.

Community work programme

But it seems that not all hope is lost. Just a week after that incident, another Eastern Cape leg of the reimagined community work programme has been launched. The goal of the programme is to create sustainable solutions to unemployment in communities.

Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Zollie Burns-Ncamashe says, “It’s more about reimagining the programme and repurposing it so that ultimately we are able to come out with a more sustainable intervention that when we link with other partners in the private sector, social parents and so on. then we are able to ensure that we create the kind of leadership that is able to the current challenges that are facing our society.”

Nelson Mandela Bay’s Executive Mayor Gary van Niekerk stresses, “It’s going to be a game changer, in terms of employment especially employing young people. We are addressing the joblessness of our youth, the youth that matriculated. this programme is really giving people a job with dignity, getting them away from the street, away from crime as well.”

Young people in the Metro say they hope that beyond the talk, jobs will be created.

“It’s very hard getting a job. even the crime rate in our communities has risen because people are unemployed. I’ve been applying to different places and got lucky at EPWP, but it was a short-term contract.”

“Being unemployed is not nice because as a man you have many responsibilities, to provide for your family, your home and children, it’s just a lot.”

The Community Works Programme in the past five years in the Eastern Cape has created about 48 thousand job opportunities for young people and another 10 thousand will start jobs in May under this programme.