500 000 jobs target in spotlight

Monday, December 14, 2009

Pretoria - Figures indicating if government has met its 500 000 work opportunities target will only be reported in mid-January 2010, says Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge.

Doidge said no pronouncements will be made regarding the December work opportunity targets until all work opportunities created are verified.

"As we have done at the end of each quarter this year, we have only made public the progress on Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) figures once they were verified.

"The same applies with this last quarter which will only be reported on in the middle of January 2010 once the quarter is complete and all reporting is verified.

"It would be wrong for anyone to claim a conclusive result to the figures before due process has been followed," he said.

He was responding to media reports which indicated that the minister has apparently admitted to government having failed to meet its target.

He said on numerous public platforms, he has reiterated government's confidence in meeting the targets set by the President.

"When we released the second quarter figures at the beginning of November we stated that the figures have improved and will still improve based on the mobilizing of all spheres of government and public bodies in contributing to the EPWP outputs," he said.