iSIMANGALISO WETLAND PARK TO CREATE 2000 JOB OPPORTUNITIES

iSimangaliso Wetland Park working concurrently with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has created another 2 000 Expanded Public Works Programme(EPWP) job opportunities for communities living in and neighbouring the Park through Cleaning and Greening project. This is the second time for iSimangaliso to run the Cleaning and Greening project. Few Months ago, iSimangaliso has created 300 Job opportunities in three local municipalities of people living in and adjacent to the Park through this project.

The DFFE realized that more efforts are needed if the environment is to be protected from pollution and conceptualized a national Municipal Cleaning and Greening Programme. The Environmental Protection and Infrastructure Programmes (EPIP) and iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority have identified the need to increase and strengthen efforts towards Environmental Protection within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. As such the Department is requesting to collaborate IWPA to ensure that its mandate is achieved; to manage, protect and conserve South Africa’s environment and natural resources and promote sustainable development. The main activities for the programme is to do street cleaning, litter picking, illegal dumps clearing, tree planting, etc. it also assist with maintenance around and within the park and provision of programme-related administration duties. iSimangaliso will leading the implementation of this project at uMhlabuyalingana local Municipality, Big Hlabisa local Municipality and uMtubatuba local Municipality through its appointed service providers.

This project is one of multiple ways that iSimangaliso is executing to develop communities within uMkhanyakude District as uMkhanyakude is known as a poverty node. Amongst the 2 000 that will receive employment, 488 will be from St Lucia, 378 from uMtubatuba, 297 from Hluhluwe, 192 from Mkhuze,433 from Mbazwana and 287 from Manguzi. iSimangaliso engaged with Municipalities, Amakhosi and other community leaders to assist in identifying families and focus areas that are engulfed by poverty in each municipality so that they can be prioritised. It is one of iSimangaliso’s objective to empower disadvantaged communities living in and adjacent to the Park.