• The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has expanded the Cleaning and Greening Programme for the City of Mbombela.
• It seeks to tackle both waste management and unemployment in the Nelspruit region with as many as 2 000 jobs available.
• Caution is advised, however, as workers in Nelson Mandela Bay protested over unpaid wages.

This week the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment announced that its Cleaning and Greening Programme would be expanding to Nelspruit, with as many as 2 000 new job opportunities being made available via the City of Mbombela.

The Programme, which was launched last year in different metros across the country, aims to tackle both waste management and unemployment, as there are two issues that came into even sharper focus during 2023.

“The City of Mbombela is one of the 14 prioritised municipalities across the country to benefit from the Municipal Cleaning and Greening national intervention. The programme is dedicated to combating environmental degradation and eliminating litter and illegal dumping,” the department noted in a statement.

“In addition, it will boost job creation with a core focus on empowering women, youth and individuals with disabilities. 2 000 participants are being recruited for the City of Mbombela through the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP),” it added.

It is at this point that we need to point out that the Municipal Cleaning and Greening Programme (MCGP) has not been without its issues. This as in December of last year, participants in the MCGP protested over non-payment of their wages, per GroundUp.

As such, government’s desire to tackle both waste and unemployment in the Nelspruit region needs to be met with an equal push to ensure those who participate are paid in a timely manner.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa asked all of us as government leaders to come up with programmes to create jobs for our people, especially post the COVID-19 pandemic. As a department, we have responded to the President’s call with this initiative to create jobs while contributing to a cleaner environment,” Deputy Minister Makhotso Sotyu, who briefed media this week.

“This programme will essentially see community members working with the government to clean their communities while earning a monthly stipend. The programme will allow you, the participants, to put food on the table, to provide for yourselves and your families while carrying out the important task of keeping our communities clean,” she concluded.

Given how the Programme struggled to deliver on promises made to participants in Nelson Mandela Bay, we hope that the Nelspruit version is handled far better from an administrative perspective.

[Image – Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash]