Seta Conference in Durban
10 April 2007
Programme Director, Ms Thea Cronje
Mayor of the Ethekwini Municipality, Mr Obed Mlaba
MEC for Health Ms Peggy Nkonyeni
MEC for Works Ms Lydia Johnson
Councillors Present
Heads of Departments
Chairperson of the Health and Welfare Seta (HWSETA)
Board Members of the HWSETA
Stakeholders of the HWSETA
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is my pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to extend my greetings to all of
you representing the Premier of our Province, Dr Sibusiso Ndebele.
Thank you for the opportunity you have given me this evening to meet old
acquaintances and to make new ones in an area which is common to many of us.
Having served in Parliament and various civil society organisations, bodies
such as this are crucial for the development of our country and society.
In this brief address i have taken the liberty to talk about the
relationship between economic development and the drive for the acquisition of
skills in our country and province.
Let me say this right from the start: There will be no sustainable economic
development in KwaZulu-Natal or any part of South Africa without a structured
skills massification programme.
I use the term "massification" advisedly because as the Presidency has said
nothing short of a Skills Revolution will sustain our wonderful economic
growth.
We have set KwaZulu-Natal on a permanent course of peace. In doing so we
have satisfied the first condition for economic development, which is the
belief by a critical mass of reasonable human beings, that the political
situation is predictable. This is very important.
It is not in dispute that all developed economies were once underdeveloped.
All developed economies today such as the United States, Britain, India, Japan
and Malaysia find themselves on top of the world because they were able to
identify and deal with Peace and Skills Development.
Now that peace prevails in our region we are seeing real economic benefits
in countries such as Angola, Mozambique and South Africa amongst many in
Africa. Peace has the ability to turn a pariah country into a talk of the town.
Peace has the ability to transform a negative growth economy into a boom.
However the one common challenge facing these potential economic giants is
the inability of their citizenry to drive the economy upwards and therefore to
benefit from the opportunities that follow this type of growth.
Often the key impediment is the lack of skills. The lack of skills has the
ability to turn a prosperous country into a nation of mediocrity. An
inappropriately skilled citizenry is not able to embrace and drive economic
growth. A lack of skills creates a population which plays at the periphery of
the economy.
To unskilled citizens, economic boom times become a mere rumour and a
whisper. They canât confirm it, and they are not sure they heard it right the
first time. This is precisely the potential we face ourselves; that the
unskilled and unemployed canât confirm the statement that the country is on an
unprecedented growth trajectory since 1994.
In the case of South Africa therefore only a Skills Revolution will take us
to that required level of economic growth of at least 6%. Already at national
government level, as part of the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA), we have identified the lack of skills as standing in the way
of full economic development.
In this context in March 2006 Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
launched the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) which
seeks to bridge that priority skills gap via innovative training methods. So
growth must be accelerated, and it must be shared. When growth is shared the
majority can witness first hand that the economic boom times are here. In this
way our people will have moved from the periphery, to the centre of the
economy.
The Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) therefore play a critical
role in the socio-economic strategy of our country and province. They are
critical tools in ensuring that the state beefs up its capacity to deliver.
This is in line with the decision of the Growth and Development Summit of 2003
that Skills Development must become a top priority if we are to lift the
country from mediocrity to excellence.
For our part in KwaZulu-Natal we have called for co-operation between the
private sector, provincial government and all the peopleâs organisations such
as the trade unions. Hence our theme this year, which is: "Economic Growth
through Partnership". This is because we understand that it is not possible for
government to deal with the backlog of services to our people by seeking to go
at it alone.
Only through partnership can we deal with unemployment and poverty. That
spirit of partnership is behind the collaboration between various organisations
and bodies towards the goal of training and skilling our people. Together with
the Department of Education, Labour, Science and Technology, Public Service and
Administration and the SETAs, private sector organisations and civil society we
can together make a telling blow on these challenges.
In addition to a skilled workforce, it is important that our people remain
healthy throughout their working years. A healthy workforce is one of the
conditions for the successful implementation of a sustained growth
strategy.
The budget for the health sector nationally has grown from R33 billion in
2002/03, to R517 billion in 2006/2007. It is expected to grow to R60,8 billion
in 2008/09. The introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) seeks to
improve public health in the country through disease prevention. The NHS will
also consistently improve the public health care delivery system by focusing on
the access, equity, efficiency, quality and sustainability.
In the NHS we believe that a healthy life is a result not only of access to
health facilities after one has fallen ill, but a function of a holistic
approach to life that reduces the need for hospitalisation owing to ill health.
In other words we believe in the old cliché: "Prevention is better than
cure".
On the Social welfare front, according to the South African Yearbook of
2006/2007 by March 2006 as a country we were paying 11 million social grants.
These included foster care grants, care dependency grants, war veteransâ
grants, old age grants, disability grants and child support grants. These
figures were still possible to attain in spite of the fact that many people
exited the system during 2006 who were receiving grants illegally.
It is important to speak about these social grants because research tells us
they not only reduce the occurrence of hunger and extreme poverty, but they
also facilitate household access to basic services and economic opportunities.
In fact Social Grants contribute half of the income of the poorest 20% of our
people.
It is therefore easy to see why social grants have been the fastest growing
expenditure of government since 2001. Social grants now amount to about R70
billion a year, or 3,4% of the Gross Domestic Product.
In conclusion therefore let me say it is clear why, almost to the point of
obsession, we are concerned about skills development in particular but training
in general. Training prepares people for the world of work and equips them with
the tools to help the country grow its economy. In this way training and skills
development are the surest means out of unemployment and the creation of
sustainable jobs for our people.
The following illustration will illustrate my point. Minister of Finance
Trevor Manuel recently estimated that there were 1 million vacancies in South
Africa today. We know that at any given time 21% of the posts in the public
sector are vacant. Minister Manuel further said that if these posts were to be
filled, the unemployment rate would be reduced to 19.7% immediately, instead of
the high 25,5%. In any language this would represent a drastic drop indeed!
We are therefore aware of what it is we need to do get the 1 million
vacancies filled. We know because chief among the reasons why these vacancies
exist is the reality of inexperience and a shortage of skills. This is why we
are all here today. As various government institutions and departments we are
responsible for creating the conditions which are necessary for the continued
growth of the economy.
The Health Welfare Education and Training Authority and other SETAS are a
critical part of that struggle. Without the SETAS the struggle for the
emancipation from unemployment and joblessness of all our people, cannot be
won. All the relevant organisations must therefore play their roles. Let us
together push towards 6% economic growth, together let us push for a skills
revolution, together let us work for economic growth through partnership. In
time, as the Freedom Charter tells us, "There shall be work and security", for
all our people!
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs,
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
10 April 2007
