By Nothando Yolanda Tshuma
The third phase of the Social Employment Fund (SEF) kicked off on 1 July 2024, again employing thousands of young Makhandans in waste collection and recycling, food security and nutrition, educational support and entrepreneurial development.
The National Arts Festival (NAF) is again managing the bulk of the local SEF workers – 1,600 of them. According to NAF director Monica Newton, these workers are also producing building blocks and interlocking pavers made from recycled plastics and glass, which the NAF hopes will be instrumental in a range of improvement and beautification projects this year.
Since June 2022, thousands of local participants have gained seven days-a-month employment – funded by the Government and managed by the National Arts Festival, the Assumption Development Centre, Awarenet, the Centre for Social Development and Assitej – to revitalise the city. They cleared stormwater drains, fixed potholes, filled tens of thousands of rubbish bags, fixed schools, planted gardens, recycled waste and worked for social change in various local nonprofit organisations.
Throughout Phase 2 of the project, from August 2023 to April 2024, the NAF project paid wages valued at R28.9 million. Achievements in Phase 2 included:
- The removal of an average of 250 tons of waste per month, recycling 20% of it.
- Over 360 tons of tar was laid to repair potholes in over 50 roads across the city, in both the east and the west.
- Twenty-seven food gardens have been created and maintained, each contributing to the food security of an estimated 500 people per garden, mainly learners at no-fee schools.
- Maintenance work has been done at 18 schools, three clinics, three ECD centres and two police stations.
- An average of two tons of green waste is turned into compost monthly, which is then used to make better food gardens and grow public gardens that beautify spaces and discourage illegal dumping.
“We have made great strides since the project launched initially, working at scale across the City to resolve some of the most pressing issues in partnerships with communities, local businesses and Makana Municipality,” Newton said.
Phase 3 of the NAF’s SEF will expand the focus on food security and nutrition. Several hundred more workers are again employed through Awarenet, the Assumption Development Centre, the Lebone Centre, and Assitej, significantly boosting income for poor local households.
The project seeks not only to create jobs but also to inspire a sense of dignity and purpose. Newton said that by focusing on the arts as a medium for social change, the NAF aims to leverage creative industries to drive economic growth and community development. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to integrate social responsibility within the arts, ensuring that cultural activities contribute meaningfully to societal well-being.
To address critical questions concerning the role of social responsibility in the arts, key figures from the Social Employment Network congregated at The Barista during this year’s Festival to engage in a dialogue about the program’s objectives and potential impact on the community.
The role of local NPOs in the SEF
Meanwhile, Awarenet, an ICT education NPO based at the Joza Youth Hub, leads a consortium of 19 nonprofit organisations that employ 200 SEF participants. While 13 of these organisations are in Makhanda, three are in Peddie, one in Port Alfred and two in Graaf-Reinet.
According to Awarenet director Kjetil Torp, the SEF participants work in a variety of different functions supporting school learners, such as after-school tutors in a variety of subjects, robotics and coding trainers, computer lab supervisors, assistants to teachers in classrooms, teachers of music instruments, and organisers of educational play groups in ECD centres.
They also work in support functions at nonprofit organisations by cooking for after-school nutrition programs or helping with general administrative tasks. Torp said that a group of SEF participants have also been diverted to the Department of Health, where they, among other things, help digitalise the patient records of the local district.
“We do hope that the project can grow and that more people who are currently unemployed can get the opportunity to do a meaningful job that has tangible, positive effects on the community. The impetus for the project springs from the realisation that our society has so much work that needs to be done – yet there are also so many unemployed people.
“The goal is therefore twofold – to combat unemployment in Makhanda and the wider region and at the same time help build the after-school sector in Makhanda which helps young people thrive both educationally and in life in general,” he said.
Approximately 117,000 individuals have benefited from the SEF project nationwide. The SEF is managed by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which has employed 37 Strategic Implementing Partners (SIPs). These SIPs have collaborated with over 1,100 community organisations, networks, and structures to effect real economic change within communities.
“To qualify for SEF funding, you need to show up and be prepared to solve the problems where you live,” Newton said. “It is not done for the money but for the passion of changing the social and economic conditions.”
On the tour of three of the NAF projects that SEF funds, the first stop was the Umthathi Training Project in Extension 7, which aims to increase the quality of life through further developing the knowledge and skills necessary for growing food and living healthily.
The second site was the factory that makes recycled bricks with glass, plastic and cement. “Our problem [of poor waste management]can become our solution,” Newton said.
The last stop was at the Black Power Station, where Tim Cooper, the project manager of the Environment and Green Effort project, met the team. Cooper discussed the effort to create the wood chips seen during the festival at Village Green and Fiddlers Green that are used to protect the grass.
Since not all workers were re-employed in the new phase of the SEF, we asked Newton what happens to those who do not get their contracts renewed.
Newton said the NAF conducted a short survey with about 300 participants who left the project in Phase 1 and learnt “quite a lot about what people choose to do after leaving the project”.
“Unfortunately, the City of Makhanda does not have a huge economy that absorbs a lot of people into permanent jobs, but 16% reported that they moved into better-paying jobs, 13% who have taken up formal studies such as learnerships and opportunities at FET colleges and 12% have started their own businesses, mainly in the informal sector,” Newton said.
