Abstract
Stubbornly high levels of unemployment and poverty in post-apartheid South Africa necessitated the intervention of government to create job opportunities. The government introduced the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in 2004 to span three phases, with the third phase ending in 2019. The programme has since been extended and is now in its fourth phase of implementation. The policy goal of the EPWP was to create short term employment opportunities that would provide income to beneficiaries, thereby alleviating poverty. It was envisioned that the skills acquired through the programme would enable participants to access work opportunities in the labour market on completion of the programme. Literature on the EPWP suggests that, although the programme has succeeded in reaching a large number of the unemployed, it has failed to increase the participant’s access to other employment prospects. This dissertation explores the extent to which the EPWP succeeds in being a catalyst of decent work by analysing a case study of the experiences of EPWP beneficiaries in Tshwane, Gauteng. Based on interviews conducted with seventeen respondents, this study revealed that in certain aspects, the programme fell short of increasing participants’ skills through training provided to gain decent work at the end of the programme. Rather, the EPWP, instead of contributing to decent work, contributes towards the growth of precarious work. Further, it was found that the experiences of participants in terms of work conditions, training, wages, health and safety and union participation vary significantly based on the type of employer and the type of work done during participation in programme. Given that this is a national programme, the findings reveal that the experiences of participants differ across various project sites; there is no uniformity within the programme in terms of the conditions of employment. Some participants may be better equipped with skills and knowledge while others are disadvantaged. As a result, participants’ exposure to and experience of decent work varies across different project sites and employers.
M.A. (Development Studies)