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Today the streets of Durban leading to the Durban City Hall and immediate vicinity are gridlocked by hundreds of disgruntled Public Employment Programme ( PEP ) workers and it’s all a direct outcome of the city ignoring the DA’s prior warning.

Earlier this year the DA in eThekwini raised the alarm over the imminent end of the PEP program, despite the city downplaying this and its effects by saying the program would run till June 2024 with no hiccups. However, not long after the program came to an abrupt end and plunged thousands of workers into unemployment and poverty.

The DA in eThekwini had warned that the city’s failure to make good on the promise of duration of employment for these thousands of individuals would have dire and undesirable consequences.

Did eThekwini heed the DA’s warning? The simple answer is NO. Instead the city:

· Failed to ensure that those employed under the program were retained for the full duration.
· The city also failed to effectively utilize allocated funds to ensure that wages of those left on the program were paid and in full.
· The city failed to provide answers as to how and why the PEP programme collapsed so badly and prematurely

They prioritised social events to the tune of millions of Rands and lost R17 million for housing projects through its own officials.

Today the CBD is taken over by hundreds who feel aggrieved and are demanding accountability.

When close to 4 000 PEP workers were left out in the cold the DA was inundated with cries for help as many of them had felt they’d been let down and robbed of an opportunity to put food on the table for their families.

The DA in eThekwini explicitly called on the city manager to intervene but he did not.

Today we witness the direct result of the ANC-EFF led eThekwini’s blatant disregard for the poor who and the DA says the blame should be placed squarely with eThekwini.

Issued by Councillor Thabani Mthethwa - DA eThekwini Caucus Leader