The State President Thabo Mbeki said, “It is wrong that government should oblige the people to come to the government even in circumstances in which the people do not know what services the government offers and have no means to pay for the transport to reach government offices.” This he said two years ago.
I gobbled my eyes out as I carefully watched him speak. No, on screen!
“Hope he does not make a lot of noise about nothing on a valentine’s day nogal”, I thought to myself. I hear him say “It will be particularly important that we attract the right people into this cadre of community development workers (CDWs), train them properly, and supervise them effectively. …these workers will help to increase the effectiveness of our system of local government, strengthen its awareness of and capacity to respond to the needs of the people at the local level”. My ugly thoughts are refuted. So long.
And I reciprocate. This time with a grin, no grimace.
I remember half my chin was rested on my right palm. My eyes protrude as if chiselled by a sculptor. My other ear is on one end. I was seeing and was hearing the President speak on TV “a framework for this approach will be ready in the next four months”. As I configure what he was importing to my mind, I figured this must have been a stern instruction to his comrades in arms.
Then last of last year, September 11, The Public Service and Administration Minister Fraser-Moleketi begins to put pips in the framework that has already been toiled. In her parliamentary media briefing, “The Gauteng Province will be the first to deploy a group of 40 trained CDWs followed by Limpopo , North West and Eastern Cape provinces .” My eyes are running amok. They look for time-frames. And they find nothing. Except that Gauteng Province pilots the project.
I hit a brochure issued by the piloting province. At the top centre is a size 10 font “Contracted to Build, Grow and Develop Communities”. The eyes scroll down and bump into “Community Development Workers”. And I am arrested by an excerpt which says “2004/2005, recruitment and training, 2005/2006, deployment of 320 fully fledged CDWs”. It tells me that by 2004/2005, there will be recruitment and training and in 2005/2006, 320 candidates will be deployed in Gauteng Province
Public notices and adverts in Ekurhuleni, City of Tshwane , Metseding, West Rand , Sedibeng, and in every Jozi corner. The Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa speaks. I stumble for a station on my one band wireless, I wind up, I wind down. It hits Lesedi FM. It is on February 21. I hear the Gauteng Premier, Mbhazima Shilowa in his opening of the Provincial Legislature speech. He says that by April 2005, 204 CDWs will be deployed to 108 municipalities in the Gauteng Province . “120 will undergo learnership training in the same period.”
I know a comrade who knows a comrade who is amongst the first group to be recruited. He refuses to be named because of protocol stringency. “This is the first phase and it ends this weekend (February 28). The project started in October 2003; it’s a pilot project in Gauteng of 204 learners, 6 dropped out because of better employment offers elsewhere.
My fingers twitch and myth has it that I am going to be pampered with lots of money. I am not falling for that, payday is far from here. I urge to hear Mike Khanyile reply to me on the other line. “We call them cadets – workers-in-training, they are working and at the same time training. Ekurhuleni has 49 CDWs, with Thokoza, Katlehong, Vosloorus, amongst others. And Johannesburg has 50 in areas like Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Soweto and Hillbrow ward 62. By April this year, 200 fully fledged CDWs will be deployed to 425 wards,” says the Provincial co-ordinator, Khanyile.
I am jumping up and down, at long last the solid rock on my shoulder is put to the grave. “˜Dear Judy’ will be freed from community-government related problems. I want the addresses of the offices where these workers will be operating. But my excitement is blocked as Khanyile says, “Cde Judy if there’s someone who needs to access a CDW, you must contact me so that I can arrange for you, and you know these workers are not office bound, they are field workers.”
My nerves are swelling, I am stressing too hard, maybe I am too pressed for time. But will the people who “have no means to pay for the transport to reach government offices” ever be heard?
If you are interested in training as a CDW, look out for adverts in your local newspaper. If you live in Gauteng and need the help of a CDW, contact Mike Khanyile on 082 567 8414