16 January 2025
Thabile Prisca Motloung, who lives in a rural village north of Nquthu, in KwaZulu-Natal.. Photo: Bongane Motaung
After her husband’s death in 2014, Thabile Prisca Motloung became the breadwinner for her sons. Since 2016, she has been employed under the Community Work Programme — a government initiative aimed at offering people without jobs a chance to acquire skills – looking after the elderly and sick in rural villages around Silonjane, north of Nquthu, in KwaZulu-Natal.
But earlier this year the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) announced it would be terminating the temporary employment of workers aged 55 and older.
This followed two attempts last year by the department to terminate the jobs of people aged above 60. When announcing the new decision, Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa said budget cuts had made it necessary to reduce the number of people, more than 250,000, on the programme.
However, before midnight on Thursday (hours after the publication of this article), Hlabisa, in a statement, said COGTA decided to extend the contracts of CWP participants aged 55 and older until the end of March 2025 “whilst exploring viable and sustainable solutions”.
Hlabisa said the CWP is “one of the transformative public employment programmes that respond directly to social security by providing temporary employment safety nets”.
He added that, “Our aim is to address this issue thoughtfully, ensuring a careful balance between financial responsibility and social accountability”.
Earlier on Thursday, COSATU’s national spokesperson Zanele Sabela told GroundUp that the contracts of 67,000 CWP workers had been terminated, and only 31,000 of those workers qualified for an Old Age Grant.
Motloung, who turned 55 a few days before the announcement, said she was devastated to learn that her final salary would be paid at the end of January. “Who will hire me at my age?” she asked. “My last born son is in grade 10 and I won’t be able to provide for his school needs because I don’t have any other income,” she said.
She said she had earned about R900 a month which she used to buy electricity and groceries for her family. “The money was not enough but it made a difference,” she said.
“Many women are going to starve with their families because there are no jobs here.”
She added that she loved her job helping elderly people in the community. “We swept, cooked and even bathed them. Do you think young people will have the heart to do that?” asked Motloung.
But for Motloung, it’s already too late. With the school year starting, she has sent her youngest son to live with his uncles because she currently can’t afford to care for him.
Unions are currently in talks with COGTA in a bid to have the decision reversed.