SAMWU engaging COGTA on looming Community Work Programme job cuts

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) said it is "cautiously optimistic" it can get the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) to reverse its decision to cut the temporary jobs of 67,00 people.

COGTA recently announced that due to budget cuts, it would be terminating the contracts of beneficiaries from the Community Work Programme (CWP) who are 55 and older. 

The CWP is a government initiative providing temporary employment to people of working age, while they search for permanent jobs. 

CWP benefits about 250,000 people across the country.

READ: COGTA terminates contracts of community workers aged 55 and above

From that number, about 67,000 are 55 years and older.

SAMWU has been engaging the department on behalf of the affected workers.

The union's deputy secretary general, Nkhetheni Muthavhi, said the talks with the department have been positive. 

"The government must find money somewhere else to finance this programme. If you're saying people aged 55 and older are going to be laid off, these are people that cannot be employed anywhere and this programme was supposed to skill them and it never did."

The affected workers will be paid their last salaries on 25 January.