Community workers begin training
Nombini Matomela
8 February 2005
Cape Town - The first intake of a new kind of national servicemen and women began training in Cape Town on Monday as part of the Community Development Workers programme (CDW).
About 400 community activists, recruited from across the province, will undergo a combination of class-based and in-service training at the University of the Western Cape for the rest of the year.
Those who pass will be deployed on a full-time basis in their communities, where they will ensure that people have an understanding of where and how to access government services such as social grants, health services and HIV/Aids programmes.
Community development workers - a concept introduced by President Thabo Mbeki in 2003 - will help the government with service delivery by improving communication and generally advising and assisting local people to access services to which they are entitled.
"The policy and legislative framework is now in place, but many still
suffer because they don't know how to access services to which they are entitled", said Western Cape Local Government and Housing MEC Marius Fransman.
Out of the 400 recruits, 16 will eventually be deployed in Mitchell's Plain, 20 in Khayelitsha, 30 in the Central Karoo and the rest in rural areas in the province.
The first intake will conduct its first practical exercise at busy shopping malls, interviewing people about their expectations of government. The trainees will receive compensation of R900 per month for the duration of the learnership programme.
The programme is driven nationally by the Department of Public Service and Administration
In the Western Cape, Premier Ebrahim Rasool has tasked the Department of Local Government and Housing with developing and managing the implementation of the programme at local level.
Source: BuaNews
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