R428-million set aside for the development of local economies, job creation, infrastructure delivery – particularly of water, and spatial development.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), under the leadership of MEC Sipho Hlomuka, has proudly created 46 316 job opportunities in the 2020/2021 financial year.
This was revealed by MEC Hlomuka last Friday when he delivered his department’s Budget Policy Speech in the Provincial Legislature.
According to MEC Hlomuka, these job opportunities provide much-needed work experience and skills to 12 000 young people who are their main beneficiaries.
MEC Hlomuka believes that these ongoing programmes, which include 250 in-service trainees, 45 250 CWP workers, 500 municipal interns, 222 job opportunities through EPWP infrastructure projects monitoring, 36 infrastructure young professionals, 15 assistants to financial experts deployed to municipalities and 65 departmental interns, are making a meaningful impact on the lives of those who benefit from them.
“As government, we are committed to empowering women, the youth and people living with disabilities. In these programmes, we have provided jobs opportunities to 38 000 women and more than 400 opportunities to people living with disabilities. We were motivated by the need to reduce unemployment among graduates, assist unemployed graduates in obtaining work experience and build the capacity of municipalities in the province in keeping with our constitutional mandate,” said MEC Hlomuka.
MEC Hlomuka has committed his department to maintaining the department’s 45 000 CWP job opportunities and to recruit 500 municipal interns at the end of the current term of interns.
“In addition, we will recruit 65 interns and provide monitoring support to the 250 in-service trainees recently recruited,” said MEC Hlomuka.
In his department’s 2021/2022 Budget of R1.7 billion, an amount of R428-million has been allocated to the development of local economies, job creation, infrastructure delivery – particularly of water, and spatial development.
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