The city council has scheduled more briefing sessions on the Jozi@Work programme starting the last week of January next year.
Actual dates for the sessions will be posted on www.joburg.org.za closer to the time.
This comes as council is rounding up the last of the 23 sessions where through regional forum, it briefed co-operatives and community-based enterprises on work packages for their bidding.
The briefings included some in Alexandra where the Mayor Parks Tau outlined plans for the programme and the Region E director Liziwe Nsthinga-Makoro led the regional forum in briefing prospective service providers on the work packages. The programme will contract co-operatives and small local businesses to implement council’s projects and work plans in their areas and in the process, they will become economically empowered and also benefit through skills development support.
According to Tau, the role of regional forums is to fulfill council’s objectives to transform the local economy by getting residents involved in projects and turning them from being job seekers to job creators. “They [forums] are a step towards realising the goal of the city in partnering with communities to build a world-class African city while also aiding socio-economic transformation. Also, they are a platform to create sustainable enterprises that will enhance competition, create jobs and spur economic development, innovation and assist in alleviating poverty.
A R1 billion budget has been assigned for the programme and successful service providers will be supported by Capability Support Agents [CSA] for technical and developmental assistance. The CSA will ensure that the enterprises are properly trained to deliver quality services and that they become sustainable businesses.
Tau said the programme will simplify the procurement procedures to cut down on bureaucratic red tape, but only legally registered service providers will be engaged to ensure public money is accounted for adequately.
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