The coverage adequacy and graduation under the Expanded Public Works Programme in South Africa

Abstract

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is one of the South African government’s strategies to reduce poverty. It provides income relief by availing temporary work opportunities for South Africa’s unemployed people including those in rural areas such as the Thulamela Local Municipality. Studies on the EPWP in South Africa have mostly concentrated on the impact of the programme on unemployment and poverty, leaving a critical gap on issues such as coverage, adequacy and graduation of the programme. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the coverage, adequacy and graduation of the EPWP in South Africa. The study was executed at two levels. First, national data from the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) were used to assess the coverage and adequacy of EPWP. Secondly, primary data collected from the Thulamela municipal area were used to analyse the graduation component of the programme. SPSS and R Studio were used to analyse the quantitative data to determine the adequacy and coverage of EPWP. Panel regression analysis was used to evaluate how EPWP work opportunities created can be predicted in the model. Furthermore, binary logistic regression was conducted to estimate the probability of getting a job or starting their own business for the people who graduated from the EPWP. The study found that EPWP work opportunities significantly contributed to temporary relief from unemployment. However, the work opportunities created are still not enough to address the major problem of poverty and unemployment in South Africa. With regard to adequacy, the study found that the EPWP daily rate was higher than the daily international poverty line and all three South African national poverty lines. It was thus concluded that the EPWP wage rate was adequate. The findings concerning graduation are that EPWP training, gender and qualification were statistically significant to the model predicting whether or not an EPWP graduate will find a job after exiting the programme.