106
Source: Based on Van der Berg and Siebrits (2010)
88
Various studies have confirmed that this support is well targeted and contributes
considerably to poverty reduction. 62% of the total of social grants went to the poorest 40%
of households.
Another important anti-poverty intervention is the Expanded Public Works Programme
(EPWP), which includes the Home-Based Community Care and Food for Waste
Programmes. It provides poverty and income relief through temporary work for the
unemployed. The programme “was launched in April 2004 to promote economic growth and
create sustainable development. The immediate goal of the EPWP Phase 1 was to help
alleviate unemployment by creating at least 1 million work opportunities, of which at least
40% of beneficiaries will be women, 30% youth and 2% people with disabilities”89. The
target of 1 million job opportunities was attained in 200890. Details of progress made and
impact of the Expanded Public Works Programme are elaborated in paragraph 3.2.3
“Unemployment’ in the thematic area on Economic Governance and Management.
Social Sector: No. of Work opportunities
Total
Municipal
Provincial
2009-2010
80,000
2,744
77,256
2010-2011
96,000
3,293
92,707
2011-2012
132,000
4,527
127,473
2012-2013
187,000
6,414
180,586
2013-2014
255,000
8,746
246,254
Source: Department of Public Works
By the end of December 2011, the Environment and Culture Sector of the EPWP had created a
cumulative 307 731 work opportunities and 74 114 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs since 2009 across
the country. Initiatives to improve employment opportunities and economic livelihoods
include the implementation of the aquaculture programme and the Inland Fisheries
programme that were launched in 2012. The DTI is expanding efforts to support agroprocessing in rural areas, e.g. local maize milling.
In early 2010, South Africa signed an agreement with the World Bank for fee-based technical
assistance (FBTA) to help this country to develop and implement comprehensive rural
development and land reforms. This also provided for South-South experience sharing and
learning, with a view to strengthen rural development initiatives. As part of this South-South
experience sharing, a hi-powered delegation of government studied closely the evolution of
Chinese rural development and poverty reduction strategies including rural land reform, rural
industrialization and job creation, integrated rural-urban development, and China’s system
for national monitoring and evaluation of rural development. The same has been done in a
number of other successful developing countries. Lessons learned have been used in the
continuous rethinking and strengthening of programmes in this area.
88
Arden Finn, Murray Leibrandt & Eva Wegner, ‘Policies for reducing income inequality and poverty in South Africa’, p. 76 at;
http://transformationaudit.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Chapter-4.pdf.
89
Department of Public Works official website, at http://www.epwp.gov.za/
90
Ibid.
106