The Community Work Programme’s (CWP) Kwa-Thema cluster rejects the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ (COGTA) decision to sack workers aged 55 and older.
The workers are unwilling to accept that COGTA will leave thousands without employment at the end of January.
“Most of us started working in 2016, and they have renewed our contracts every three months. Now, they drop the bomb on us, on December 24, that contracts of everyone aged 55 and older will not be renewed,” explained Dorcas Nxumalo, the cluster’s chairperson.
Worker Mpho Tabane said the department previously tried to get rid of people aged 60, but the workers fought back.
“We staged a protest at the head office in Johannesburg. Eventually, they responded and said we could work until the end of March 2025. Now, they are cutting off from 55 years old instead of 60,” she added.
Tabane said their greatest concern is that anyone who stops working at the age of 55 must wait five years to get an old age pension.
“Where will we get jobs now? What will our children eat?” asked Nxumalo.
The programme, established in 2016, sought to provide an employment safety net for eligible members of target communities by offering them a minimum number of regular days of work monthly and targeting unemployed and underemployed people.
The CWP said it realises sustainable employment solutions will take time, particularly in reaching marginal economic areas.
The programme offers work two days weekly, eight days monthly or 100 days annually.
In the CWP circular number 13 of 2024, the department announced that the contracts of participants aged 55 and older would end. The department blamed budget cuts for the decision.
“In light of the situation, the department regrettably has no other option but to reduce the number of participants in the programme,” it explained.
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