Gauteng’s Departments of Agriculture and Environment have failed to pay service providers and workers in the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) on time due to the extension of Premier Lesufi’s unfunded Nasi Ispani Programme. This means that the affected parties who relied on this income were unable to make ends meet and sustain their businesses.
This information was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, in a written reply to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL). According to MEC Ramokgopa, the EPWP programme was extended for three months for the Agriculture and Rural Development Department and six months for the Department of Environmental Affairs.
This reckless extension which was not budgeted for meant that EPWP workers had to be paid from the goods and services programme. This had a negative effect on all creditors being paid within 30 days.
See the full reply here, here, here and here.
The DA Gauteng demands that before Premier Lesufi relaunches his Nansi Ispani programme, he ensures that there is an adequate budget to pay all workers on time and that money is not taken from the budgets of other service delivery programmes.
A DA-led Gauteng provincial government will not implement any job creation programme without first ensuring that there is a sufficient budget for the programme. Our unemployed residents need a government that is willing to ensure that they are paid on time for services rendered and do not have to wait longer than the payment date stated in their contracts.