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Non-teaching staff support programme extended

By

Richard Daai
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor Danny Jordaan (centre) shaking hands with Northern Areas Education Forum Secretary Richard Daai and Eastern Cape School Governing Body Association Chairman Mongameli Peter at the press briefing hosted by the Executive Mayor to announce that that Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will continue to assist schools with non-teaching staff through the Extended Public Works Programme. The assistance by the Municipality will bring relief to teaching staff to concentrate more on teaching rather than administration,cleaning and other schools necessities that are not directly linked to teaching.

Last year Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality led by Mayoral Committee took a conscious decision of starting an initiative under its Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) that was aimed at supporting schools within the City, 330 EPWP participants were recruited and deploying in 186 schools across the City.

An amount of R4,7million from the NMBM EPWP 2015/16 Grant Allocation was set aside for the NMBM EPWP Non-Teaching Support Staff initiative. Due to high number of schools that submitted requests for assistance during planning phase of the project, the National Department of Public Works (NDPW) was approached and lobbied to partner into the initiative.

This initiative has been supported by the following legislative framework; Firstly the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996 assigns functional areas of concurrent legislative competencies to the three spheres of government;

The Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act of 2005 recognises the interdependence and inter-relationship between the various spheres of government; and further recognises that the challenges faced by communities are best addressed through working in the provisioning of services and addressing the plight of the people of South Africa. Education is a societal issue NMBM Council together with its residents and its social partners have a big role to play for the economic development of our region.

I am extremely happy to highlight on behalf of NMBM an ANC led Council that we have fulfilled the promise that was made last year on the 11th of December 2015 during the time of project launch at Helenvale Resources Centre, that of supporting more than 186 schools, creation of 330 work opportunities and training of participants.

As part of our on-going commitment of ensuring that we build capacity and efficiency amongst participants into this initiative, some of the participants have been trained on the following skills:

  • Office Administrative Skills with NMMU
  • Computer Training with Eagle Computer Training Centre
  • Report &Business Writing and Presentation Skills with Khanyisela
  • Health & Safety, First Aid, Fire Fighting & Chainsaw with ETC, Falcon & BLS Medical

In line with our agreement with the National Department of Public Works starting from the 01ST of July 2016; the EPWP Schools Support Programme will be taken over by the NDPW through its agent Independent Development Trust (IDT). Officials from IDT are currently busy finalising rollout plan. On behalf of NMBM Council, I extend our sincere gratitude to everybody that has ensured that the project becomes a success.

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The Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Communications Department is responsible for communicating pertinent Municipal news from Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch. Municipality Contact Details. See more articles by NMB Communication's.