The eThekwini Municipality won the best Metropolitan Municipality Award in the infrastructure sector at the Kamoso Awards held in Pretoria yesterday, 26 November 2015.
It is the third time the City has scooped the prestigious award.
The awards are to encourage, motivate, recognise and reward government departments, municipalities, provinces and public bodies that excel in implementing the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). The programme aims to significantly alleviate and reduce poverty and unemployment by creating work opportunities.
Other finalists competing for the top prize in the infrastructure sector were the cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg. The infrastructure sector of the awards focused on increasing the labour intensity of government-funded infrastructure projects as well as building cost-effective quality assets.
EThekwini Mayor James Nxumalo said as part of the City’s commitment to be Africa’s most caring and liveable City by 2030 and to address the triple challenge of unemployment, inequality and poverty, the Municipality has spent R840 million on EPWP and created over 29 000 work opportunities in the 2014/15 financial year.
“Winning this award for the second consecutive year and three times overall bears testimony to our concerted efforts to transform lives by providing access to opportunities to earn an income. We have expanded the methods of labour-intensive production in government-funded projects to eThekwini residents, thus making a socio-economic impact among communities and individual beneficiaries,” he said.
The beneficiaries of the programme are selected by community war rooms where families who for example go to bed hungry or where no one in the household receives an income, are identified.
The Programme ensures that some form of income is brought into the house thus effectively dealing with the issue of poverty.
The EPWP has helped the City to maximise employment opportunities, particularly among the youth who make up 70 percent of the unemployed within eThekwini. The EPWP also provides training and skills development to locally employed workers.
