PRESIDENTIAL JOBS SUMMIT AGREEMENTS MONITORING

Nedlac has a sub-committee which meets quarterly in order to receive reportbacks on the implementation of the Jobs Summit Agreements. Obviously, it is not possible to reflect all the information here, but these are some of the highlights from the documentation Nedlac has received.

BUSINESS TRUST

The results achieved so far inc the following:

• R888 million of the targeted R1bn has been secured.

• Business plans worth R1.6 billion have been approved for implementation with co-funding mainly from government.

• A set of schooling programmes incorporating over a million pupils, 15 000 teachers and 1 500 schools in all nine provinces has been launched. These will improve reading ability by 2 years and writing ability by 4 years for a million primary school pupils and produce a 10% improvement in Mathematics and Science results for 400 000 high school pupils.

• A tourism marketing campaign has been launched in the USA and Europe, which in its first year was seen by 60 million people. This is backed by a training programme that will improve the skills of 15 000 people in the tourism sector and an enterprise support programme which in its first year assisted 100 small firms and supported 1 877 jobs. Over 1 000 firms will benefit by the end of the programme.

• A programme to support the integration of the justice system has been supported which has demonstrated, among other things, a 40% reduction in waiting trial time for prisoners in the pilot centers.

• A programme to control malaria in South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland was initiated.

LABOUR JOB CREATION TRUST

The Job Creation trust has R86 242 138 in its investment account. There are 3,307 applications, worth about R4.5 billion captured in the JCT data base. 24 projects have been approved, totalling R18 642 000. In order to launch the implementation phase of the project, the trustees of the Job Creation Trust chose a project in the rural Northern Province - Giyane, called Baleni Tourism Association. The Northern Province tourism board has already started developing the site as part of the Ivory Trail and it has been declared a national cultural heritage site. The money will be used to develop/build over-nighting facilities as well as a facility for selling handicrafts/traditional arts, and to develop the hotwater spring and saltpan. These improvements total R750 000. The trustees have approved the whole amount as a soft loan. The project was launched at Nkomo Village in Giyane.

GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

• The Department of Social Development Special Allocation for poverty relief started in 1997/98 as a special employment programme. Thus far a total of 42 524 jobs have been created. 2 864 projects were identified to the value of R329 794 580. 72% of the projects were rural based, 26% urban based and 2% in the informal settlements. The youth and women largely benefited from the employment opportunities, as well as the disabled.

• Up until the August 2001, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry had created a total of 416 527 jobs which benefited women and youth extensively.

• The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has undertaken numerous job creating projects in various provinces. Altogether 159 projects have been implemented nationally, creating 262 978 temporary jobs and 1 805 permanent jobs. A total of 11 983 permanent jobs are expected to be created at the end of the 159 projects. The approved budget for the various projects was R315 899 968 with only R197 454 754 spent by DEAT thus far.

• As a key financier of infrastructure development, the Development Bank of Southern Africa approved infrastructure amounting to R2 217 million and disbursed R1 622 million in the 2000/2001 financial year. The DBSA contribution to GDP amounted to R2,1 billion. It is estimated to have created 13 180 job opportunities through the investments.

• Under the Khula Start project, which aims to assist SMMEs to access finance through banks, about 3 328 group loans have thus far been issued, with about 14 822 individuals benefiting from these loans.