The city of Cape Town has created 100,000 jobs since 2011, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Thursday.

“Since 2011, the city has created more than 100,000 work opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP),” she said in a speech prepared for delivery at a council meeting.

There were EPWP projects at nearly 950 sites around the city.

De Lille said 90 people from disadvantaged areas had recently graduated from the city’s apprenticeship programme.

“Over two years, we invested over R20 million in these apprentices.

This is in addition to the R21.5m that the utility services directorate spends on internal and external bursaries, developmental training, learnerships and other apprenticeships,” she said.

Seventy-four of the graduates were working for the city’s utility services.

De Lille referred to the national government initiative, “Back to Basics”, which focused on local government issues, specifically service delivery.

“We are not only getting the basics right, we have moved far beyond them into areas of service delivery excellence and innovation as path-leaders in the public sector in South Africa.

“I am proud to say that in all of these indicators, we are leading our fellow municipalities, not least the ANC flagship metro of Johannesburg which has been experiencing chronic water, power outages, and the ongoing extreme problems with its billing system,” she said. SAPA