P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Sasol Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition
support initiative

17 August 2006

Chief Executive Officer of Sasol, Mr Pat Davies
Deputy Chief Executive of Sasol, Mr Trevor Munday
Members of the Sasol Board of Directors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

We are gathered here tonight to celebrate Sasol’s support of government’s
initiative of accelerating and developing the skills base in our country,
especially, around the areas of scarce and priority skills.

This event tonight falls within the broad objectives of the Accelerated and
Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) of which the JIPSA is
central.

You are aware that one of the biggest challenges that face our country is
that of ensuring that it develops its economy rapidly at the rate of 6 percent
by 2014, we have to cut the unemployment rate by half and ensure that our
economy is shared more widely by that time.

This proves that AsgiSA and development of human capital is a national
priority and we believe that is the only way to succeed.

We believe that we have built the basis for a national programme of shared
economic growth. With this programme we can achieve our social objectives, and
we can more than meet the Millennium Development Goals which in any case is a
minimalist developmental programme. Our second decade of freedom has to be the
decade in which we radically reduce inequality, and virtually eliminate
poverty. We know now that we can do it, working together with all section of
society. It is our belief that through strong and solid partnerships between
government and the private sector we will go a long way in achieving our
objectives. We have identified education and skills development as one of the
core tenets of this initiative and we see a significant role for the private
sector.

We need skilled people so that they can perform optimally and in the process
drive growth. We are glad Sasol has embraced this challenge. Sasol is proving
once more that it is a proudly South African company, by putting its money
where its mouth is. This very special because all 15 candidates are women and
this is women’s month. I am convinced of one of significant contribution
companies can make to celebrate 50 years since 1956 is to prepare women for a
mainstream role in the economy.

We hope that many more companies will continue to support the skills
development drive of government when we said at the launch of JIPSA earlier
this year that “The most fatal constraint to shared growth is skills! And it
should be noted that skills are not just one of the constraints facing AsgiSA
but a potentially fatal constraint!”

In summary and based on the AsgiSA priorities, the following working areas
for JIPSA have been identified as critical areas where we will need business
support in developing the skills base, such as:
* high-level, world-class engineering and planning skills for the ‘network
industries’ – transport, communications and energy - all at the core of our
infrastructure programme
* city, urban and regional planning and engineering skills - desperately needed
by our municipalities
* artisan and technical skills, with priority attention to those needs for
infrastructure development
* management and planning skills in education, health and in
municipalities
* teacher training for Mathematics, Science, Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) and language competence in public education
* specific skills needed by the Priority AsgiSA, sectors starting with Tourism
and BPO and cross-cutting skills needed by all sectors especially finance,
project managers and managers in general
* skills relevant to local economic development needs of municipalities,
especially developmental economists.

Our country cannot meet its desired target of developing the economy by
between 4 percent by 2010 and achieving the 6 percent growth rate and reduce
poverty and unemployment by 2014, if it does not solve the skills crisis and
address the logjams that exist in critical areas of our economy.

We therefore welcome this initiative by Sasol, which supports us in our
drive to build capacity in human resource development.

The contribution that your company is making in the South African economy in
terms of being one of the largest contributors to our tax base revenue is
welcomed, its intention of growing its South African assets while going global
is a positive step, its continued listing in the Johannesburg Securities
Exchange (JSE) is one of its strong indications that it is a company that is
committed to our country and the fact that it continues to be one of the
largest employers in our country is important.

All these issues indicate that you are a company with which our government
can be proud of doing business.

The investment that Sasol continues to inject in areas of skills development
is one of the positive steps, and are in line with what we say is important for
business as government, that companies must invest in people. This can be done
through the granting of bursaries in areas such as engineering, science, and
commerce, or through internship programmes where young people can get training
and work experience in companies. Investment in people is most critical because
people are the most precious assets of any company. They are a backbone and
future of any company. It is in your best interest to do so.

I commend you for your efforts and good work and hope that you will be our
partners for many years to come. Our quest to be a competitive economy and a
winning nation depends on us equipping ourselves appropriately. Institutions
mandated to advance the Skills and Human Resource Development course for the
nation is the backbone of JIPSA.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
17 August 2006