Panyaza Lesufi's Nasi iSpani plagued by payment chaos while relaunch looms

Daily Maverick

a day ago

Less than a month after Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced that his highly criticised Nasi Ispani employment recruitment initiative would be relaunched, more information on the initiative's struggles to pay Expanded Public Works Programme workers has come to light.
In 2024, more than 4,000 workers in Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi's Nasi iSpani 'Green Army' project faced significant payment delays, with millions of rands having to be diverted from other departments to cover the stipend shortfalls.
The revelation comes as Lesufi pushes ahead with a controversial relaunch of the employment initiative, sparking concerns about its funding and sustainability amid a fragile public trust in government programmes.
In a written reply to a question from the Democratic Alliance in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, the province's Agriculture and Rural Development MEC, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, revealed that between June and November 2024, 4,716 workers in Lesufi's Green Army project were not paid on time by both the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of the Environment.
Lesufi's Green Army project was launched unfunded in May 2024. According to MEC Ramokgopa's reply, the Expanded Public Works Project (EPWP) workers involved had previously been funded by a budget allocated to the departments of the Environment and Agriculture and Rural Development, which ran from April 2023 to March 2024.
When the Nasi iSpani project ended abruptly in November last year (along with all other projects under the Nasi iSpani banner), it had already spent R73-million on the Green Army, an expenditure that left the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development unable to pay service providers.
Additionally, another R59-million had to be diverted from the Environment Department between September and November to pay the stipends of the 6,000 workers in the programme.
According to Ramokgopa's reply to the DA's questions, this was because the programme's extension from June to August 2024 for the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and from June to November of the same year for the Environment Department, was not budgeted for.
'Reckless'
'This reckless extension, which was not budgeted for, meant that the EPWP workers had to be paid from the goods and services programme. This has had a negative effect on all creditors being paid within 30 days,' Gauteng MPL and DA Shadow Agriculture MEC Bronwynn Engelbrecht said.
In a statement released on Tuesday, 17 June, Engelbrecht said that her party was demanding that before Lesufi relaunched Nasi iSpani, the Gauteng premier ensured that 'there is enough money to pay all workers on time and that money is not taken from the budgets of other service delivery programmes'.
The benefits that public works employment programmes create, particularly for young and marginalised people, have been well documented. They provide pathways into employment and education, effectively combating unemployment and poverty. However, for them to be successful, they have to be well-planned and adequately funded.
In cases where they are not, as with Nasi iSpani, the job programmes fall short of providing the long-term security and skills development that young people need to build sustainable livelihoods.
'Demoralising'
Adam Cooper, researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), told Daily Maverick that while employment programmes act as a lifeline for young people, they can be deeply demoralising when not implemented properly.
'To many young people, the money they get from public employment programmes is a kind of security for them while they are also fighting the war [on poverty and unemployment] on a bunch of other fronts. If that money doesn't come in, it can be very disheartening to young people and frustrating for them to keep trying to find employment,' Cooper said.
In South Africa's current sociopolitical climate, the relationship between people and the state was very fragile, he said, adding that confidence in government programmes was already low, and when promised opportunities turned out to be unreliable, it further eroded trust.
'If programmes are advertised and then they don't pay, it can be very damaging to people having confidence that the government is trying to support them,' Cooper said.
The challenges highlighted by Cooper — such as late payments, poor planning and the erosion of trust between young people and government — underscore the need for a more reliable and accountable approach to public employment programmes.
In response to these issues, the DA's Engelbrecht said that 'a DA-led Gauteng provincial government will not implement any job creation programme without first ensuring that there is a sufficient budget for the programme. Our unemployed residents need a government that is willing to ensure that they are paid on time for services rendered and do not have to wait longer than the payment date stated in their contracts.'
Nasi iSpani 2.0 concerns arise
The ball is already rolling on the relaunch of Nasi iSpani, despite heavy criticism from within the African National Congress (ANC) and from opposition parties, including the Economic Freedom Fighters and ActionSA.
In May, Lesufi announced that his employment drive, which has been labelled an 'electioneering gimmick' by critics, would receive a second instalment, this time focusing on placing teacher assistants in schools across the province.
This instalment of the programme aims to create 40,000 jobs, and while it has been welcomed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, it has come under fire from parties such as the DA.
Refiole Nt'sekhe, MPL and DA Gauteng representative for Social Development, referenced an oral reply made by Social Development MEC Faith Mazibuko, who revealed that – similar to what happened in the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development – the Department of Social Development had had to make a special request for R48-million to be reallocated to cover the cost of the stipends for workers in the Nasi iSpani programme.
'This confirms that Nasi iSpani is an unfunded mandate that expects departments to create jobs without funding to meet this objective,' said Nt'sekhe.
However, during the relaunch of the project, Lesufi hit back at critics, saying, 'We are not doing this for political mileage; we're doing this to fight unemployment. On one hand, you see poor homes, incomplete infrastructure, and unmaintained roads. On the other hand, youth are unemployed. So we train them, pay them and get them working.'
Daily Maverick asked how the premier intended to ensure the relaunch of Nasi iSpani was well funded, sustainable and did not negatively affect the programmes in other departments. Lesufi's office had not responded to the request for comment by the time of publication. DM