Five Years of PEP — and What Comes Next
- Pedi
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
This past quarter, one chapter of Philippi's story closed — and within days, another began.
On 30 June, the Presidential Employment Programme (PEP) came to an end in Philippi after more than four years of implementation since its April 2022 launch. Just four days later, a new community-led forum for Greater Philippi was formally launched.
They are very different initiatives, but they share an important idea: the people who live with local challenges every day should be part of solving them.
In this newsletter, we look at the results of PEP's final year, what residents themselves say about the difference it made, and how PEDI and its partners are building on that work.
PEP'S FINAL YEAR IN PHILIPPI
PEP was launched in Philippi by the Mayor of Cape Town in April 2022 and ran until 30 June 2026. The idea was simple: employ local people to solve local problems.
Residents who knew the streets, dumping hotspots and danger areas were trained, employed and put to work in their own community — cleaning public spaces, reporting service-delivery problems, monitoring crime and helping to make streets safer.
Our new PMU & PEP Annual Results Report: July 2025 – June 2026 tells the story of the programme's final year. Highlights from the report are shown below.
Together, the PMU and PEP created 358 employment opportunities, while their cleaning teams collected 195,784 bags of waste. PEP teams also logged 2,420 City C3 service requests, alongside safety patrols, protective escorts, crime monitoring, community surveys and training.
Residents say the streets are cleaner
The numbers tell us how much work was done. Residents tell us whether they could see the difference.
Our Cleaning Perception Survey spoke face to face with 405 residents in Philippi East during May and June 2026.
The results were striking: 91% said the streets were cleaner than a year earlier, while 95% expressed pride in their area. Residents also reported seeing the cleaning teams regularly, with 89% noticing them every week.
There is still more to do. Residents asked for more frequent cleaning, stronger action against illegal dumping, more cleaning staff, more bins and greater recycling.
The message is encouraging but practical: the cleaning worked — and residents want it to continue.
Residents also feel safer — but not everywhere
For ten months, our Safety Perception Survey asked 4,760 residents how safe they felt in their own streets and along four of Philippi East's busiest roads.
To measure meaningful change, we compared the first three months of the survey with the last three months.
Safety improved in every place measured.
The strongest result was close to home. The proportion of residents who felt safe in their own streets increased from 33% to 54% — a 21-point improvement. Across all five places measured, the average increased from 20% to 34%.
But the survey also shows clearly where the work must continue.
Most residents still feel unsafe along New Eisleben, Govan Mbeki, Stock and Sheffield Roads. Sheffield remains the greatest concern: only 25% felt safe there during the final three-month period.
The progress is real. But the work is not finished.
Thank you to our PEP and PMU teams
Behind every number in these reports is a person.
To every PEP and PMU team member who walked those streets, filled those waste bags, patrolled hotspots, escorted maintenance crews, logged faults, recorded crime incidents and knocked on doors to speak to residents: Thank you.
The results measured in these reports are the result of your work.
BUILDING ON WHAT PEP STARTED
PEP has ended, but PEDI's work continues.
PEDI now uses a Theory of Change to guide that work. Put simply, it is a map showing how investment in people, partnerships, infrastructure, skills, safety and economic opportunity can lead to lasting change in Philippi.
It connects the challenges Philippi faces with what PEDI does, the immediate results we expect to see, and our long-term goal: a safer, more prosperous and connected Philippi where people can thrive.
It also gives PEDI, our partners, funders and the community one shared picture of where we are going — and a way to measure whether our work is getting us there.
A NEW FORUM FOR GREATER PHILIPPI
On Saturday, 4 July 2026, the Greater iPhilippi Ephilileyo Safety & Development Forum was formally launched at Philippi Village.
Residents, community organisations, faith-based groups, businesses and representatives of national, provincial and local government came together around one goal: to coordinate safety and development across Greater Philippi instead of working in isolation.
The Forum is being established as a Non-Profit Company (NPC) and will subsequently register as an NPO. An independent selection process is being used to constitute the six-member Forum Executive, after which the Forum's six workstreams will be fully activated.
A six-month Business Plan for October 2026 to March 2027 has now been developed. It provides for seven Ward Safety Coordinators, equipment for 240 CPF and Neighbourhood Watch members, two Safe Camps for Grade 10 learners, a Youth Conference, workstream projects and the Philippi Ephilileyo Local Economic Development Indaba (PELEDI), leading to the Forum's first AGM in March 2027.
Membership is open to registered organisations based or active in Wards 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 80 and 88. Each member organisation appoints one representative to participate and vote on its behalf.
📧 To request a membership form, email summit@pedi.org.za
The Forum invites the Western Cape Government, the City of Cape Town, national departments, businesses and every organisation working in Greater Philippi to support this plan.
INNOVATION HUB READY FOR OCCUPATION
The new Innovation Hub buildings at the Philippi Agrihub are complete, creating new space for training, offices and shared development programmes.
The facilities will help PEDI bring NGOs, training providers, entrepreneurs and development partners together to provide practical skills and create new economic opportunities.
The Innovation Hub forms part of PEDI's wider plan to develop the Agrihub as a centre for skills development, sustainable urban farming, recycling and waste-to-value initiatives, entrepreneurship and job creation — connecting physical infrastructure with the people, partnerships and ideas needed to grow Greater Philippi's economy.
