Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite by Leander Kruger MPL
- Political interference allegations must be investigated.
- DA launches petition demanding full transparency, accountability and publication of the municipality’s review findings.
- This is a fight to protect the EPWP programme from abuse.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is demanding answers over Buffalo City’s EPWP jobs freeze, after a letter reportedly from a senior municipal official called for all EPWP contracts, activities, and participant deployments to cease by 31 August, pending the required approvals and a review of the programme.
The programme, meant to upskill individuals and put food on the tables of struggling families, is also facing serious allegations that access to work opportunities may have been influenced by political considerations.
Residents deserve to know what went wrong, who benefited, and where the money went.
That is why the DA has launched the Open the Books Petition on Buffalo City’s EPWP Programme petition, calling on residents to join us in demanding full transparency and accountability.
Through the petition, we are calling on Buffalo City to publicly disclose how affected EPWP projects were approved and participants selected, how many participants were appointed per project and ward, how much public money was committed and spent, whether workers remain owed money for work already performed, and the findings of the municipality’s review.
We are further calling on Buffalo City Council to investigate allegations of political interference in the allocation of EPWP opportunities and make those findings public.
EPWP opportunities are not political favours to be handed out to the connected. They are publicly funded work opportunities intended for residents who desperately need an income and a foothold in the labour market.
That Buffalo City Municipality is now considering ceasing all programmes and reviewing projects, participant deployments, contracts, approvals, deliverables, and expenditure raises fundamental questions.
What happened inside Buffalo City’s EPWP programme that made such a sweeping review necessary?
Allegations of EPWP for political gain cannot simply be swept under the rug by an internal municipal process.
If jobs were allocated on the basis of political connections, ward politics, or perceived allegiance rather than fair and transparent criteria, residents have a right to know.
We want to be clear that this is not an attack on EPWP. It is a fight to protect the programme from abuse.
For an unemployed resident, an EPWP opportunity can mean groceries in the cupboard, transport money, and temporary relief from the crushing reality of unemployment. That opportunity must never become political currency.
Our DA’s 2026 Local Government Election Manifesto is unequivocal. EPWP appointments must be fair, transparent, and free from political interference.
Buffalo City must be held to that standard.
The municipality cannot ask residents to simply trust that everything is in order while simultaneously conducting a sweeping review of projects, deployments, contracts, approvals, and expenditure.
Open the books. Publish the facts. Tell residents who got the jobs, how they were selected, what was spent, and what the municipality’s own investigation has uncovered.
Buffalo City residents deserve answers.
The DA encourages residents to sign our petition and demand those answers with us. Together we can get Buffalo City working for all.