Finance

Answer:

Infrastructure led growth

Government has the responsibility to create a conducive environment for job creation and in this regard, the Western Cape Government will embark on an enhanced focus on infrastructure investment in support of economic growth (and job-creation) and its drive towards effective and efficient delivery of infrastructure for maximum citizen impact and service delivery.

Infrastructure is a catalytic enabler that fundamentally shapes society, improves access to opportunity, enhances safety, and increases mobility, ultimately restoring dignity to the citizens of the Western Cape. Increased investment in social and economic infrastructure will be a focus of economic acceleration over the medium term in response to the national government’s stimulus package and recovery plan. The Western Cape Government’s Fiscal Strategy, introduced in the 2017 MTBPS, has always been premised on the principles of allocative efficiency, fiscal consolidation, fiscal sustainability and fiscal discipline. Strict adherence to these principles are bearing fruit and now allows the Province to create a long-term financing plan to support an infrastructure-led growth strategy, resulting in an additional investment of R6.8 billion over the ten-year period up to 2028/29.

The Province plans to spend more than R 29.5 billion over the 2019 MTEF on infrastructure and associated costs.

Expanded Public Works Programme

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) focuses amongst others on job-creation and skills development. Utilising labour intensive construction methods on selected projects or project elements is an important lever utilised by the Western Cape Provincial Government towards reducing the levels of poverty and unemployment in the Province. It does this through:

• Giving unemployed person’s access to temporary work.
• Capacitating unemployed people through skills programmes and work experience.
• Ensuring that unemployed persons receive an allowance for any work they have completed as part of the EPWP.
• Enhancing EPWP participants’ chances of finding jobs or starting own enterprise.

Over the past five years, more than 300 000 short-term job opportunities were created in the infrastructure environment in the social and economic sectors by using more labour-intensive construction and maintenance methods.

Over the 2019 MTEF, in addition to National Governments EPWP Grants, the WCPG’s contribution to the EPWP will amount to approximately R99 million.