Scores of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) participants in Gauteng are expressing their frustration after not receiving payment for three months.
A female worker, who wished to remain anonymous, shared her distress with The Star, stating: “For the past three months (September, October, and November), we have not been paid. Now it is November, and there is no transparency regarding this. Some of us have heard that an official has used the money. This is affecting all of us who are under the Panyaza project.”
The situation escalated when it was reported that a female EPWP participant was allegedly assaulted by her partner after he accused her of lying about the non-payment.
A colleague confirmed: “Yes, I can confirm that a woman from Pretoria was badly assaulted by her partner for lying about not being paid for three months.”
Another anonymous worker highlighted the urgent need for accountability from the relevant departments.
“We asked during a recent meeting for the department to account for this. We recently lost some participants; one from Jabulani, Soweto, was shot, and others have been injured at work while employed under the department,” the worker lamented, illustrating the palpable tensions among staff.
One employee expressed the dire consequences of the situation: “We are really suffering because our children are starving, and we are unable to provide for our families. What is even worse is that soon schools are going to close, and we will not be able to provide for our children.”
In a statement dated November 21, Blade-Mosley Letafola, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Environmental Health, confirmed that the department is currently reconciling all submitted claims from EPWP participants who have not been compensated.
“The department is reconciling all the submitted attendance registers and portfolios of evidence of work performed by the EPWP participants during this period to correctly pay each participant based on the number of days worked,” Letafola stated.
The issue of unpaid salaries is not new; it gained public attention in June when a group of aggrieved EPWP contractors blockaded roads leading to the Bheki Mlangeni District Hospital in Soweto, protesting against alleged corruption and nepotism by a local ward councillor.
Some workers claimed they had not received payment for over a year, with accusations surfacing that someone was misappropriating their funds.
Earlier this year, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, acknowledged extensive reports about the non-payment of stipends for EPWP participants across various municipalities.
In response, she directed senior management within the department to urgently investigate the reasons behind the payment delays and engage directly with participants to validate payment information, including copies of ID and banking details.
Creecy stated: “The verification process is scheduled to take place over the next two weeks, after which senior management will report back to me.”
She assured that efforts would be made to expedite the processing of payments and rectify the situation, expressing her discontent: “It is not acceptable that some participants who have given their time and energy to the department have still not been paid for their services.”
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment has claimed to have created 51 048 jobs as part of its cleaning and greening programme.
However, this figure starkly contrasts with the growing frustration among EPWP participants regarding their unpaid wages, raising serious questions about administrative efficiency and accountability.
Attempts to get comments from the Gauteng Premier’s Office were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
The Star