Siyabulela: labour – intensive projects create jobs and promote conservation

The Siyabulela programme was established in 2006 in recognition of the 59th anniversary of the Women’s March. The Western Cape Provincial Government provided R3 million which CapeNature used to employ teams, comprising predominantly women, to undertake labour-intensive onservation projects. This initiative was so successful that CapeNature continued with the project the following year, extending it into the Garden Route, Boland, Cederberg and Western Boland. Between 2006 and March 2009 a total of 239 people were employed through the Siyabulela programme. The Siyabulela programme provided an exit strategy for contractors trained through the Working for Water programme and focused on providing additional training. In 2008/9 alone, 766 person days were spent on training courses such as that depicted in the illustration on the left.