Managed Precarity: The Political Instrumentalisation of the Community Work Programme in South Africa

Description

Page: 1260-1266

CJ Tchawouo Mbiada (Department of Mercantile and Private Law, University of Venda Thohoyandou South Africa)

With fanfare and trumpet, the South African government launched the Community Work Programme (CWP) in 2007. The CWP is a governmental employment programme initiative that aims to reduce unemployment and underemployment among people with some work. The CWP is a feature of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), a more comprehensive strategy to reduce poverty and unemployment. This paper critically examines the CWP and argues that while it represents a temporary palliative to disenfranchised populations, it formalises or enacts a sort of labour vulnerability that fails to tackle the structural roots of unemployment. Relying on legal and policy frameworks and literature, the paper demonstrates that CWP participants are subjected to poor wages, insecure employment, and limited employment growth possibilities in addition to often being denied full labour protections. In addition, local political leaders often use the programme to increase their patronage networks, which reduces its ability to foster growth and personal economic sustainability. This study, applying a political economy perspective, concludes that the CWP serves as a device for political scoring and social control rather than a mechanism for formal employment. On this basis, the paper advocates for a reconsideration of public employment programmes that foster dignity, legal protection and a sustainable, inclusive economy.