President Ramaphosa to officiate the 20 Years Celebration of the Expanded Public Works Programme

President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Wednesday, 24 April 2024, officiate the 20 Years celebration of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and launch the Phase V of the programme in Buffalo City Municipality, Eastern Cape Province.

The EPWP is a nationwide Government programme to create work opportunities and income support to poor and unemployed people through the delivery of public and community assets and services, thereby contributing towards development.

The programme is one of Government’s flagship Public Employment Programmes and has been implemented for the past 20 years since April 2004.

The EPWP is implemented within four sectors, namely; the Infrastructure Sector and the Non-State Sector coordinated by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure; Social Sector coordinated by the Department of Social Development; and the Environment and Culture Sector coordinated by Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

Since its inception the programme has created more than 14 million work opportunities across all the EPWP Sectors through more than 300 public bodies and Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) implementing the EPWP.

The work opportunities were created in sectors such as road constructions, road maintenance, construction of schools and clinics, provision of Early Childhood Development Services, Environmental greening and clean-up projects, fire projects and removal of alien vegetation projects.

These also include training and skilling in construction skills in painting, brick laying, carpentry; Home Community Care skills and fire-fighting.

The launch of the Phase V implemented from 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2029 will be used to unveil millions of more work opportunities to benefit women, youth and poor households for inclusive growth, sustainable development, and community empowerment in the country.

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Time: 10h00
Venue: Buffalo City Stadium, East London, Eastern Cape Province.

Members of the media wishing to cover the event are advised to complete the accreditation form in full and submit it to Takalani Mukwevho on takalanim@gcis.gov.za or Itumeleng Mashaba on itumelengm@gcis.gov.za by no later than 16h00 on Thursday, 18 April 2024.

Media enquiries: Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to the President - media@enquires.gov.za 

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria