SA skills dearth 'urban legend'
23/05/2007 14:53

Cape Town - Trade union Solidarity on Wednesday asked that the minister of labour replace Employment Equity Commission chairperson, Jimmy Manyi.

This comes after Manyi's comments in parliament that the country's skills shortage is an urban legend. Manyi also alleged that companies experience skills shortages only because white management refuses to appoint blacks.

According to Flip Buys, the union's general secretary, the skills shortage in SA poses such serious problems that attempts by senior government functionaries to undermine government's own Jipsa initiative simply cannot be tolerated.

"Manyi fails to support his allegations with examples and statistics. The Jipsa chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, recently pointed out that 30% of all technical positions at municipalities are vacant on an ongoing basis.

"Does this mean that the approximately 80% of municipalities that are under ANC control also ignore trained black applicants, a trend that, according to Mr Manyi, is generally the case?" Buys asked.

He also points out that deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has repeatedly stated that SA is experiencing a serious skills shortage.

"Perhaps Manyi should peruse the latest Jipsa progress report as published on the government website, to gain an understanding of the problems posed by the skills shortage."

The Jipsa report has, for example, the following to say about the shortage of artisans: "South Africa is experiencing a severe shortage of well-qualified, competent and experienced artisans.

"While the economy currently produces approximately 5 000 artisans per year, research suggests that at least 12 500 artisans should be produced each year over the next four years to meet demand."

Mantashe recently pledged to personally find any white artisan a job should they be unable to find employment in the municipal service due to affirmative action.

The report goes on to highlight shortages of engineers and staff shortages at municipalities. It furthermore refers to a study conducted in 2005 by the Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunication Technologies (ISETT) Seta and the department of trade and industry in which it is estimated that the shortage of trained workers in the IT industry is set to reach the 300 000 mark this year.

"If this does not constitute sufficient proof of the country's skills shortages, then perhaps Manyi knows something that the rest of us do not," Buys added.

According to Solidarity, companies spend large amounts to import foreign workers.

"In June 2006, for example, Sasol imported 1 300 workers from Thailand to do maintenance work on Sasol plants in SA. The company gave us the assurance that it would have preferred to use South Africans for this undertaking, if there were trained South Africans who could do the work."

Solidarity also repeated its invitation to Manyi to pay a visit to the trade union?s training college, Sol-Tech, in Centurion. Sol-Tech currently trains hundreds of young people in those trades that are regarded by Jipsa as scarce skills.

"Large SA companies snatch up these students - the majority of whom are black - because they do not have sufficient numbers of artisans."

Information supplied by www.fin24.co.za