The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape will continue to ensure full payment of monies to workers employed in Community Work Programmes (CWP), as an apparent lack of funds and non-registration for Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) purposes creates serious difficulties in the Emthanjeni Local Municipality.
Stipends owed for August 2025 to workers based in Britstown were only paid on Friday 19 September 2025, nearly three weeks after it was due. I regularly met with affected workers and took their concerns to the local offices of the Department of Cooperative Governance, finally securing a public hearing between workers and departmental representatives on Wednesday 17 September. Workers were initially told that the late payment was due to technical errors on the side of SITA. During the public meeting, however, it transpired that there was a lack of funds available to pay workers on time.
Financial constraints are increasingly common refrains sung by organs of state in all spheres of government, but it cannot excuse or justify the violation of workers’ rights. The lack of funds, which should have been budgeted for as part of the ordinary departmental processes, raises serious concerns about timeous payments going forward. Some workers are still owed two months’ stipends and it appears that there are irregularities with UIF-registrations, which may make it difficult for beneficiaries to claim benefits once their participation in the CWP ends.
The DA’s provincial spokesperson on Finance, Fawzia Rhoda, has written to the Northern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements & Traditional Affairs to determine what support the provincial government gives to ensure that workers are paid in terms of their contractual agreements and to establish if similar difficulties were reported elsewhere in the province.
The CWP is intended to serve as a safety net for some of the most vulnerable members of our society and non-payment of stipends erodes the very same dignity that is meant to be protected.