The City of Johannesburg has started the process of awarding some R1-billion in municipal work contracts to community-based enterprises as part of its Jozi@Work programme, driving the city’s objective of achieving socioeconomic transformation by transforming job seekers into job creators.

The programme, which was launched in September last year, would see the city granting municipal service tenders to cooperatives and community-based organisations for work required in the community in which they were based.

Over R1-billion of the city’s 2014/15 budget for municipal contracts, repairs, maintenance and new building construction would be deployed through the programme, while a further R3-billion had been committed for the 2015/16 fiscal period.

The city expected the programme to “enable” up to 1 755 businesses and support some 12 329 jobs in 2014/15.

Work packages on offer were linked to electricity distribution and maintenance; waste collection and processing; greening and landscaping; building construction and repair; road maintenance and construction; fleet support; agriculture; water and sanitation; and information communication technology support and maintenance.

“The programme will change the way the city does business and will enable communities to respond to problems in their own backyards, while being paid for it.

“We would have achieved the programme’s key objectives when we reach a point where residents no longer accept hand-outs, but put their hands up and make things happen for themselves,” Johannesburg executive mayor Parks Tau said at the announcement of successful contract bidders in Ennerdale, south of the city, on Wednesday.

The city outlined that each successful cooperative or “micro-company” would be supported by a regional Capability Support Agent (CSA) that would handle all invoicing and payments, ensure that the contracted work was completed in accordance with acceptable standards, and ensure that enterprises were able to rent the equipment and buy the raw materials required to complete the contract.

The agents would also, over a two-year period, provide the successful companies with training, advice and support, as well as assist them in accessing low-cost loans, enable them to grow beyond the programme and enter the open market.

“We cannot overemphasise the importance of these agents to this process, as they link the community to the city. Now that these small community enterprises have been contracted, the relevant and accredited CSAs have immediately come on board in the role of supervising,” the mayor noted.

The city added that the contracting system would be strictly monitored to prevent corruption and ensure that councilors or city officials were unable to influence the allocation of contracts.

CONTRACT ALLOCATION
Expanding on the tendering process, Tau told emerging service providers that contract bids would be scored and ranked according to how close the members of the business’ residences were in relation to the location of the work.

The ranking would also consider how many jobs the proposal would create and the skills offered by the enterprise.

“This is not arbitrary allocation of projects; it’s a tendering process. The contracting follows the Municipal Finance Management Act rules but adds that we score with a bias to proximity, so [it is important] where you live and where your company is.

“We are also biased towards those that are [most] able to do the work. If you come in with a spade and say you want to fix roads, but you’ve never worked on a road, you may have a problem… and [we] can’t have that,” he commented.

The first cycle of the monthly Jozi@Work regional forums, where communities were briefed on the available work packages in their region and registered as potential service providers, began in December, with some 6 500 entities registered since.

These roadshow-style platforms would continue to be leveraged by national departments and city entities to communicate work packages that became available in the future.