Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson has given eThekwini 30 days to act after suspending EPWP funding over irregular payments, including ghost beneficiaries flagged by the Auditor-General.
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THE recent revelations around eThekwini Municipality’s handling of the expanded public works programme (EPWP) are deeply disturbing.
This is not just another case of municipal financial irregularity. Instead, the issue points to a deeper failure of local governance in a programme meant to bring short-term work, dignity and relief to poor and unemployed residents.
The EPWP is supposed to offer a lifeline to households under severe financial pressure. So, when payments are allegedly made for work not done, and when records reportedly include ghost, deceased or otherwise ineligible beneficiaries, it is not only public money that is abused. It is the poor who are cheated.
What makes this worse is that this was not a sudden mistake. Serious concerns were raised, yet the programme was allowed to drift into deeper failure. That points to weak controls, failed oversight and a municipality that did not act with the urgency the situation demanded. This is why the issue should not be treated only as an audit matter or an administrative lapse. It is a local governance failure with real human consequences. When a municipality cannot protect the integrity of a poverty-relief programme, it is the unemployed and vulnerable who pay the price.
In a city with deep unemployment, an EPWP opportunity is not a small thing. It is food, transport money and dignity. If those opportunities were diverted or manipulated, then eThekwini Municipality did not merely mismanage a programme. It deprived poor residents of work that was meant for them. Poor and unemployed residents should remember this when they are next asked for their vote.
A work opportunity must never depend on connections, gatekeepers, illicit and gruesome favours or manipulation of lawful processes.
MARLAINE NAIR, MPL
DA KZN spokesperson on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta)