D Peters: Human Resource Development Strategy launch

27 January 2007

Madam Deputy President, Mme Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Programme Director
MECs
Mayors and Councillors
Government officials
Business representatives
Labour representatives
Distinguished guests
Media representatives
Ladies and gentlemen

Our provincial growth and development strategy mandated us to develop a
comprehensive human resource and development strategy. Accordingly in response
to that mandate, we are pleased to present to the Northern Cape community this
human resource strategy.

Madam Deputy President, we are honoured by your presence here this morning
and also excited about the launch of this strategy which seeks to address our
fundamental challenges as a province.

The apartheid education system deskilled our people and has therefore failed
to produce the human resources required to deal with developmental
initiatives.

It is our understanding as the provincial government that human resource
development programmes should translate to the empowerment of our people
through appropriate education and training, and ensure that they participate
fully in all the economic activities.

Ladies and gentlemen, over the past few years, we have witnessed growth and
development in our human resources in the country. Human capital is central to
any development and public servants are no exception.

Our province in particular, needs imaginative and innovative mechanisms to
bring our human resources to the required levels in terms of skills and
knowledge so as to be able to fight against poverty and underdevelopment.

Yearly, in my State of the Province Address, we make a commitment to our
people, that we will provide them with essential services to improve their
lives. What we did was to ask ourselves, do we have people who possess the
required skills and knowledge to deliver on all the promises we have made? If
not then what have we done to ensure that we create a pool of capacitated men
and women who will fulfil our mandates?

We believe that this strategy will provide all of us a conceptual framework
for human resource development in our province. The strategy focuses on three
institutional sub-systems of the social system, which play an important role in
the development of human resources in the Northern Cape.

Ladies and gentlemen, this strategy has its origins in the Reconstruction
and Development Programme as one of its key principles that focuses on the
development of our human resources. Furthermore, it builds on the foundations
that have previously been put in place through the National Human Resource
Development Strategy, National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) and the Human
Resource Development Strategy for the Public Service.

Madam Deputy President, it is our hope and wish that this strategy should
address the major human resource capacity constraints currently hampering the
effective and equitable delivery of services across all sectors in our
province.

The strategy signals our determination as the provincial government to
invest in our human resources, in an attempt to meet the needs of our economy
and democratic order. We therefore believe that the objectives contained in the
strategy represent appropriate priorities for skills development until
2009.

Ladies and gentlemen, through your active participation in its
implementation, we believe that the strategy will open up the opportunity for
all of us to benefit from better co-ordination and alignment of developmental
initiatives that are already taking place in all sectors in our province.

As the provincial government we have prioritised the growth and development
of our economy through all sectors. Human resource development is considered as
the engine of economic development. The strategy is the ideal tool that we can
collectively use to address socio-economic challenges facing our province.

We have reached an important milestone in locating human resource
development in its rightful place in the economy. Education and training may
not be a universal remedy for underdevelopment, but is certainly a
pre-condition for growth and development.

We have to ensure that our education and training system serves the cause of
redress and equity, capacity building and empowerment, social regeneration and
cultural enrichment for all our people.

We cannot continue to create an ever-escalating number of unemployed
graduates who in most cases have qualifications, which are not needed by the
economic realities on the ground.

What we should always be mindful of is that, just as the environmental
crisis affects the natural resources on which life ultimately depends, so does
the education and training crisis threaten the human resources of knowledge,
skills and self-confidence to service our people in accordance with the
principles of Batho Pele.

Ladies and gentlemen, the development of our human resources has
consequently become a critical component of our Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy, to grow our economy and create broader participation by
our people, especially women, the disabled and the youth.

Unfortunately the restructuring of our economy in the past eleven years has
pushed a number of people, particularly the unemployed and unskilled workers,
into what we now call the second economy.

The second economy also includes many people who have never had access to
the formal first economy and survive though a number of informal income
generating activities.

It is incumbent upon all of us in our society to ensure that as our economy
grows, and as we develop our province, we do not leave behind those who are in
the second economy, nor can we allow the increasing wealth in our society to
only benefit a few.

Government therefore envisages an enhanced role for all stakeholders in
addressing the issue of support to the second economy as well as increasing the
participation of poor people in our economy.

Democracy has created immense opportunities and wealth in our country and
yet, those who do not have skills to participate are often left out of the
economic benefits. It is therefore a priority that we address the skills
development in our country, and increase the participation of those in the
second economy.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have to do this as our country will never be able
to sustain the growth that we desire without having greater numbers of people
participating in our economy.

The important role and benefits of human resource development and the
potential they have in contributing to our economy cannot be over-emphasised.
That is why I am pleased to be a part of this launch.

As the provincial government we have a commitment to support developmental
initiatives as they have the potential to create and develop income generating
activities and sustainable, decent employment. Through this strategy we will be
able to develop human resource capacities, increase savings and investments and
improve the social and economic well being of our people.

It is our aim to ensure that through our human resources development we
establish and expand a viable and dynamic distinctive sector of the economy
that responds that responds to the social and economic conditions of our
people.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our understanding that we will amass much needed
support from all of you as stakeholders, and together promote and develop a
greater number of economic opportunities for our people.

What is critical is that because of our overlapping needs, we should be able
to utilise some of the support mechanisms to provide assistance to all
sectors.

This strategy will be one essential component of the emerging human
resources developmental strategy. It must be considered therefore that plans to
improve schooling and the work of higher and further education as well as with
research and entrepreneurial initiatives within the provincial economy will
always be a priority.

I hope and wish that each and every individual attending this launch this
morning will join hands with us in contributing towards making this strategy a
living reality so that it should successfully contribute towards employment
creation and alleviating poverty in our communities.

The targets of our success indicators that are proposed in this strategy are
ambitious but not cast in stone. Each year the provincial government and
stakeholders will assess the progress being made in achieving the success
indicators and it will report and make public its findings.

It may also suggest amendments to the success indicators in the light of
experience. The implementation of this strategy is a dynamic and active process
but it will only succeed if it is truly a provincial commitment. We believe all
these are possible and we are committed to working together with our colleagues
and stakeholders to ensure that we create an enabling human resource
development environment to ensure a province at work for a better life for all
our people.

I am convinced that our education and training has been a seedbed for our
national renewal, and I further believe that we all have an obligation to
further ensure that this seedbed in the public sector is well tended for a
better life for all, in order to ensure sustainable livelihoods of our people
and communities.

In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, allow me to quote a famous writer, Alan
Paton, who wrote in his book 'Cry the beloved country':

"It was permissible to develop the economy with the aid of whatever labour
we could find and had
It was permissible to use unskilled labour to do unskilled work
It was permissible to use skilled labour to do skilled work
But it was not permissible to keep labour unskilled for the sake of unskilled
labour"

So let us not keep our people down by not re-skilling the skilled who are
without jobs and growth prospects, and keeping the unskilled out of
employability by not creating training opportunities.

I thank you
Ndiyabulela
Baie dankie
Ke a leboga

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
27 January 2007