R9bn jobs fund will 'buy' 150,000 jobs

Image: GCIS

In a written reply to a parliamentary question by Congress of the People MP Smuts Ngonyama‚ Gordhan said that so far R3.34bn had been allocated to projects and a promised R3.14bn had been leveraged from project partners.

"The number of jobs will continue to grow as more projects enter the implementation phase and as more quality projects are submitted to the fund‚" Gordhan said. The fund was established in June 2011.

A total of 601 applications had been received in the third call for proposals‚ which closed on 15 March and these were now being assessed. In the first call for project proposals 2‚651 applications were assessed. A second call for proposals was issued in April last year and resulted in a further 1‚000 applications being assessed.

To speed up the job creation process‚ Gordhan said the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Treasury officials had been directed to significantly improve the process and ensure much faster processing of applications and allocations of funds.

The minister said successful applicants were given three years to implement their projects and the period of implementation for individual projects would range from April last year to March 2016.

By end December 65 projects had been approved by the investment committee for funding. Between April last year and March 2015 these projects were projected to create 107‚753 permanent jobs; the placement of 53‚994 beneficiaries of internships or training programmes; 43‚359 beneficiaries placed in short-term jobs; and 109‚239 participants in training programmes.

Of the 65 projects to which funds have been allocated, 22 were in implementation and of these 18 had been operational for only five months.

Gordhan explained that the jobs fund was designed to promote job creation by providing public funding for enterprise development; infrastructure investment; support for work seekers and institutional capacity building.

In reply to a question by Democratic Alliance MP Marius Swart‚ Gordhan indicated that the disbursement of funds was strictly controlled.

Each recipient of grants was contracted to deliver specific targets and funds were not disbursed if project targets were not met. Quarterly progress reports were required from all recipients.