South Africa Moves to Digitize EPWP Recruitment, Expand Pathways to Jobs

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (XOL Africa)— South Africa is moving to reform recruitment into the Expanded Public Works Programme by using the SA Youth Mobi platform, a shift officials say could reduce political interference and give unemployed people clearer pathways from temporary public employment to skills development and permanent jobs.

Rikus Badenhorst, chairperson of Parliament’s Select Committee on Public Infrastructure and minister in the Presidency, welcomed the decision by Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson to move EPWP recruitment onto the digital platform.

Badenhorst said the reform was needed after years of allegations of political gatekeeping, patronage and abuse in the allocation of EPWP opportunities.

“For too long allegations of political gatekeeping, patronage and abuse in the allocation of opportunities have been made against the EPWP,” Badenhorst said.

He said Macpherson’s nationwide EPWP listening tours had brought those concerns directly to government and that addressing them required changes to how the program operates, rather than another policy document.

Digitizing recruitment, Badenhorst said, would make opportunities more visible and allow applicants to be matched through rules based on factors including location, education and eligibility.

“This reduces the space for the politically connected middleman deciding who gets an opportunity and who does not,” he said.

The SA Youth Mobi platform is zero-rated, meaning unemployed young people can access it without spending money on mobile data or airtime.

Badenhorst said the accessibility was important in a country where the cost of searching for work can itself prevent unemployed people from accessing opportunities.

But he said the larger reform involved the government’s Working on Infrastructure initiative, which aims to move EPWP beyond short-term employment.

“South Africa does not need government programmes that simply improve participation statistics. We need programmes that improve people’s prospects,” Badenhorst said.

He said EPWP should not remain a cycle in which participants perform temporary work and leave without gaining skills or improving their employment prospects.

Working on Infrastructure is intended to provide longer-duration participation, practical experience in infrastructure repair and maintenance, mentorship, training and certification, as well as pathways toward recognized occupational opportunities and ultimately permanent employment.

Badenhorst said parliamentary oversight would focus on the implementation of the reforms, accessibility of the recruitment system and whether the promised pathways result in sustainable employment.

“Reform must be measured by results,” he said.

He added that the principle behind the changes was to remove political discretion, broaden access to opportunities, develop marketable skills and give EPWP participants a pathway beyond temporary public employment.

“Minister Macpherson is demonstrating that public employment programmes can be reformed rather than simply defended,” Badenhorst said. “Government should not merely give somebody a temporary job. It should give them the skills and opportunity to build a future.”