COGTA extends 67,000 CWP beneficiaries' contracts for another four months

JOHANNESBURG - About 67,000 beneficiaries of the Community Work Programme can breathe a sigh of relief after the cooperative governance department extended their contracts for another four months. 

At the beginning of the year, the department announced it was terminating the contracts of CWP workers aged 50 years and above.

After public pressure, the department renewed the contracts until the end of March.

Speaking to EWN on Monday, Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa said the department had resolved to extend their contracts until the end of the financial year.

"We engaged again on the issue of CWP and we agreed that in the new financial year, it would be very logical when we have not passed the budget and then you terminate the category which we have identified, so now we are giving four months more," said Hlabisa.

Hlabisa added that in the meantime, the department would be conducting an audit of the programme as there were credible suspicions of fraud.

"There are people whose age is above 100 in the programme and we want to confirm whether they really exist and once we have done the headcount and we engaging the unions, we have identified all the above 60 who are getting the old age grant and those who are not, we are assisting them to get it so at the end of the four-month period when they are relieved from the programme they are not left with nothing at the end of the month."