#MedicalAid: The Sheltered Employment Factories whose ownership is vested in the State through the Department of Labour plans to launch an affordable medical aid scheme and will soon engage the Service Provider for advice. The SEF has also unveiled a Housing Allowance which became effective as from 1 July 2013. SEF Chief executive officer Silumko Nondwangu said a number of service providers would be engaged to roll-out the service. He said the organisation recently received a R184 million of funding for the next three years to fund a range of initiatives and projects designed to empower the disabled in addition to the current subsidy. “All this is a result of the allocation by the Treasury, and this will enable us to carry our mandate,” Nondwangu said. Nondwangu said the additional allocation from the National Treasury will enable the organisation, “to translate policy framework into action”. He said with funding having been sourced, the implementation of the recently approved business strategy has already got into gear. He said the focus would be to stabilise existing entities, engage in change management processes, set-up governance structures, review product range and increase sales in government departments. The SEF was established in 1943 as a government post-Second World War intervention to alleviate the plight of returned soldiers and the disabled people in general to play an active role in the labour market. SEF operates as a non-profit organisation. The organisation has 12 factories in South Africa operating in seven provinces. The factories are located in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth, Potchefstroom and Pretoria. The factories manufacture furniture, textiles, metal work, leather work, book binding, and screen printing among others. Nondwangu said the two planned new factories in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces which currently have no factories would materialise in the next three years. He said a process would be initiated to engage Department of Public Works to help identify facilities that could be utilised to open the factories. “With the proposed expansion, we plan to increase the worker intake from 965 to between 1500-2000,” he said. Nondwangu said SEF was working on the delivery of a R76 million, three-year programme in partnership with the Department of Basic Education to supply school furniture in the Eastern Cape and in Limpopo. He said the project would be expanded to Free State and other provinces. He said the project was a success in that local people were being utilised to assemble the furniture. According to Nondwangu, SEF was in the process of unveiling a new organisational structure, subject to approval. He said the new structure would give meaning to the existence of SEF, unlike in the past when there was no accountability and governing structures. Nondwangu was optimistic that the expected passing of the Employment Services Bill will give effect to the legal status of the SEF and do away with the memorandum of agreements. “What we are doing now is reversing years of neglect of factories and giving them a new meaning, that disabled people also have a critical role to play in the economic growth of the country,” he said.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:52:00 +0000
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