The government has allocated an additional R11 billion towards a second phase of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Employment Stimulus.
This was revealed in a progress report issued by the Presidency on Tuesday (18 May).
Greatest impact
“An intensive process is currently underway to allocate these funds to programmes that will have the greatest impact in creating jobs and supporting livelihoods, including through the continuation of several existing programmes,” Ramaphosa’s acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale said.
The progress report is the fourth since Ramaphosa announced the Stimulus in October last year as part of his Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.
It revealed that by the end of March 2021, the Stimulus had directly benefitted 532,180 people “including 422,786 jobs created or retained and 109,394 livelihoods supported.”
“A further 161,972 opportunities are still being processed as part of Phase 1 of the stimulus, bringing the total number of opportunities supported to 694,152,” Seale added.
Phase 2 of teaching assistant jobs
Last month, the Department of Basic Education also revealed that plans are underway to implement a second phase of the stimulus in the basic education sector.
The first phase, which started in December 2020 and ended on 30 April 2021, created 320,000 teaching assistant jobs across South Africa.
“Discussions are underway to review and repackage the initiative with a proposed second phase to commence later this year. An announcement will be made once all the details have been finalised,” the Department said.
The public can find information on the overall stimulus by visiting its online dashboard, which shows that the budget for phase 1 was around R12.6 billion.
“The dashboard will be updated on a regular basis as data is received from implementing departments,” Seale explained.
“The launch of this tool reflects government’s commitment to transparency and accountability in the implementation of the stimulus, and to the use of technology to enhance its impact.”