ActionSA expresses deep concern regarding the troubling issues surrounding Pikitup’s Co-Production Model Program, which was launched in 2021 to combat unemployment caused by the impact of Covid-19. This initiative, designed to deliver waste management services in collaboration with local communities, now faces significant challenges, raising serious questions about its effectiveness and fairness.
The co-production model involves capacitating each ward in the City of Johannesburg with 15 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) employees to assist with waste management activities, including litter picking, street cleaning and promoting environmental awareness.
These workers, employed on a rotational basis by cooperatives, non-profit organisations and small businesses, were supposed to play a crucial role in keeping the city clean while providing much-needed employment to local communities.
However, recent findings reveal alarming issues:
1. Exploitation of Workers and Unfair Labour Practices: There are numerous reports of worker exploitation, including unjust and abrupt terminations of employment. Workers have been forced to purchase their own Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), despite Pikitup allegedly paying contractors for these supplies. Moreover, employees are being paid salaries as low as R1,000 to R2,400 per month, significantly lower than the amounts paid by Pikitup to the contractors.
2. Allegations of Corruption in the Contract Awarding Process: Concerns have emerged regarding the fairness and transparency of the contract awarding process, with allegations of political favouritism, further undermining the credibility of the program.
ActionSA believes that the Co-Production Model Program, in its current form, has deviated from its original purpose and is now operating more like a labour brokering system, rather than a genuine community-driven initiative. This exploitation of vulnerable workers and misuse of public funds is deplorable.
ActionSA urgently calls on MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Jack Sekwaila to initiate an immediate investigation into the practices of the Co-Production Model Program.
We demand that the City of Johannesburg ensures that workers are directly employed by Pikitup, instead of being employed by private contractors and brokers. This will restore fairness, dignity, and transparency to the program, and ensure that the program’s intended goals of community upliftment and improved waste management are met.
ActionSA Demands Urgent Investigation into Alarming Findings of Pikitup’s Co-Production Model Program
ActionSA expresses deep concern regarding the troubling issues surrounding Pikitup’s Co-Production Model Program, which was launched in 2021 to combat unemployment caused by the impact of Covid-19. This initiative, designed to deliver waste management services in collaboration with local communities, now faces significant challenges, raising serious questions about its effectiveness and fairness.
The co-production model involves capacitating each ward in the City of Johannesburg with 15 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) employees to assist with waste management activities, including litter picking, street cleaning and promoting environmental awareness.
These workers, employed on a rotational basis by cooperatives, non-profit organisations and small businesses, were supposed to play a crucial role in keeping the city clean while providing much-needed employment to local communities.
However, recent findings reveal alarming issues:
1. Exploitation of Workers and Unfair Labour Practices: There are numerous reports of worker exploitation, including unjust and abrupt terminations of employment. Workers have been forced to purchase their own Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), despite Pikitup allegedly paying contractors for these supplies. Moreover, employees are being paid salaries as low as R1,000 to R2,400 per month, significantly lower than the amounts paid by Pikitup to the contractors.
2. Allegations of Corruption in the Contract Awarding Process: Concerns have emerged regarding the fairness and transparency of the contract awarding process, with allegations of political favouritism, further undermining the credibility of the program.
ActionSA believes that the Co-Production Model Program, in its current form, has deviated from its original purpose and is now operating more like a labour brokering system, rather than a genuine community-driven initiative. This exploitation of vulnerable workers and misuse of public funds is deplorable.
ActionSA urgently calls on MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Jack Sekwaila to initiate an immediate investigation into the practices of the Co-Production Model Program.
We demand that the City of Johannesburg ensures that workers are directly employed by Pikitup, instead of being employed by private contractors and brokers. This will restore fairness, dignity, and transparency to the program, and ensure that the program’s intended goals of community upliftment and improved waste management are met.