Pretoria - The City of Tshwane yesterday began a process to recruit 2000 workers for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) through its transparent lottery system implemented to curb corruption and nepotism.
Tshwane is believed to be the first sphere of government to demonstrate the transparency of the lottery system, live with the audience to demonstrate that it eliminated manipulation of the system.
Mayor Randall Williams and MMC for community and social development services Thabisile Vilakazi observed the process at Tshwane House.
The system randomly recruits job-seekers from a pool of thousands of applicants.
Tshwane implemented the new method of recruitment to put to rest quarrels that some ward councillors were allocating workers by favouritism.
There were grievances from job seekers who thought that people would be hired from elsewhere to carry out work in their wards while they, the locals, were unemployed.
Vilakazi expressed appreciation for the process, saying that it was fair in helping various departments of the City that needed general and skilled workers to help them carry out their mandates to the people of Tshwane, be it cleaning, plumbing, electricity and others.
Williams said: “For us this journey to fairness and transparency in the EPWP recruitment process goes back to September 2017.
“We approved the first EPWP recruitment guidelines.
“These guidelines were aimed at ensuring that City projects benefit as many people as possible.
“Following this, we opened the first EPWP registration drive and we received over 120 000 applicants on our database.
“Applicants were selected randomly for work opportunities from the database in the form of an audited lottery-like system.
“Looking to improve our processes, the City has now embarked on a second EPWP registration drive, and this has attracted over 150 000 applicants.
“This time around our database registration was improved to close any gaps that were identified in the first registration.
“Among some of the improvements, our system can now capture addresses to enable selection of applicants that can be in close proximity to project location.
“The system is also able to modify the skills set to enable the correct selection where skills are required.”
A demonstration was made to the media and also livestreamed, where some 56 female general workers as well as cleaners, among others, were recruited in various parts of the metro.
More job seekers will be recruited from across all regions of the city as the audited process unfolds.
Williams added: “We are pleased to put an end to the days where EPWP opportunities were handed out to hand-picked beneficiaries.
“Under our administration, the residents of Tshwane can trust that our recruitment and selection process is fair and transparent.”
Pretoria News