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Date : 26/03/2004
Source: Ministry of Trade and Industry
Title: L Hendricks: Launch of Tombo IT Academy


ADDRESS BY DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY, MS L HENDRICKS, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE TWIB TOMBO IT ACADEMY, 26 March 2004

Programme Director
Ladies and Gentlemen.

I would like to thank you for coming here today for the launch of the Tombo Centre CCNA Learning Academy. I am very pleased that we are able to launch this centre today, as it shows how far we have come as a country. As we celebrate our first ten years of democracy it is important for us to recognise the important milestones and the things that we have been able to achieve under our democracy that were never possible in the past.

For me, one of these is being able to launch a sophisticated information technology (IT) training centre that is on par with the best in the world and have it located in one of the most rural areas of South Africa. The need for such a centre and training people in such skills has come about because of the positive progress that we have made in our economy, where there is a big demand for IT skills, particularly the skills acquired by the young women graduating from this centre.

Our economy today is better than it ever was; we have had consistent economic growth over the past ten years, our inflation rate is low, the government has more resources to put into social development, the business confidence levels are at their highest since the 1980s, and there is increasing foreign investment coming into our country. These successes have created a positive economic environment and amongst other things created the need for more skills in our economy. And because of these successes the government has been able to embark on extensive social welfare programmes, education programmes and school feeding schemes, infrastructure and housing programmes, electrification and water programmes.

Despite all these successes, we continue to face a number of challenges as a country such as high levels of unemployment and vast inequality. The government is aware of these problems and has given these matters priority so that they will be addressed in the coming few years.

In order to find ways to address these challenges it is necessary to understand how they came about so that our solutions address the real causes of the problem so that we, as government, are more effective in the delivery of our programmes and support.

Firstly, in looking at the issue of unemployed, we need to see that the problems today are the result of the policies pursued prior to 1994 and the structural changes that our economy needed to go through since 1994 in order to be competitive and have a long term future. These changes to our economy have seen a decline in some of the traditional sectors such as mining and agriculture which have shed jobs, while at the same time we have seen a number of manufacturing and value adding sectors have growing and creating jobs, for example, there has been a huge growth in the tourism industry and the information and communication technology sector.

These changes have unfortunately resulted in job losses in some sectors while at the same time there have been jobs created in other sectors. The challenge here is that the jobs created often require more advanced skills, skills that the people who have been retrenched often do not have. The government has recognised this problem and is addressing it through large-scale skills development programmes and promoting skills development in young people. Another way that this problem is being addressed is through promoting micro enterprise development. It is important to recognise that the government has not abandoned those who have been retrenched and in addition to the labour department reskilling programmes we have ensure that pension and childcare grants have been increased and extended since 1994 and that there are other social welfare and economic measures to support people.

A second challenge that we have is the disparity in wealth between our urban and rural areas. One of the unfortunate legacies of apartheid is that our rural areas were never properly developed; it has been up to the democratic government to change the situation and too address the economic problems that we have in rural areas. It is not acceptable to the government to have an increasingly large wealth gap between urban and rural areas; this wealth gap is increasing because as our economy grows more opportunities are going to urban areas.

We are therefore addressing this and trying to find ways for economic opportunities to be created in rural areas. As you are aware we have embarked on extensive infrastructure development programmes throughout the rural areas of our country and overtime we will reach most if not all of them. Specifically in the Eastern Cape, we are attracting companies to establish operations in development nodes such as Coega in Port Elizabeth, the East London Industrial Development Zone and the Wild Coast development corridor, all of which will have positive spin-offs for the neighbouring rural areas. While these projects were slow to take off, they are finally gaining momentum and in the coming few months we will see investments starting to take place.

It is important that rural communities position themselves so that they are able to take advantage of these developments. By doing this it will mean that people in rural areas no longer become the unskilled labourers that these projects require for a limited period but rather are able to take advantage of the long term better paying skilled jobs, as well as the business opportunities, that will be generated by these new developments. For example, most modern factories and tourist operations require computer support, and hotels and tourist businesses often need related services such as laundry, catering, tour guides, etc. All too often we see businesses based in urban areas take advantage of these opportunities and the people in rural areas remain impoverished.

The third challenge that we face as a country is the lack of equal opportunities for men and women, while we have made substantial progress in this area with a recent report indicating that there has been substantial growth in the number of women who now occupy senior management positions, this is still way below the number of men who hold such positions. It is of concern that woman still occupy the majority of lower level positions in companies and women comprise the majority of businesses at the lower end of the economic spectrum.

It is to overcome these and many other challenges that we have amongst others programmes such as the Technology for Woman in Business (TWIB) programme and its sub-programme, the Techno-girl programme. TWIB targets women owned enterprises and assists them to use technology better and access new technologies, while the Techno-girl programme is targeted at young woman and encourages them to pursue careers in science and technology. This Academy forms part of the TWIB and Techno-girl programme and is part of our efforts to overcoming the challenges that I have spoken about today. The role that organisation such as TWIB play in promoting access to technology and specifically targeting women is critical, as we recognised that women were not taking advantage of general support programmes and that if we are to address gender inequality in South Africa we needed to have programmes that specifically targeted women entrepreneurs.

Ladies and gentlemen given the enormity of these challenges it is necessary for government departments and organisations to work together in overcoming them. Which is why it is important to note the collaborative efforts between the dti, the Department of Science and Technology and the CSIR in making this centre a success. It is also important to recognise the role played by the private sector and the support they have given to the centre. I would like to thank Cisco for their important contribution to the centre as well as the contribution by Microsoft and Digital Partners.

The idea for the establishment of the centre came from a meeting that I held with the international Vice President of Cisco and subsequent meetings with operational staff based in South Africa - I hope that the Cisco staff present here today report back to their Vice President on the progress we have made. I also hope that they continue to work with TWIB in rolling out this programme to other centres around the country, so that young girls who are based in rural areas are able to access the many opportunities that will be created as a result of this training and are able to advance themselves and their communities.

As government we have recognised the vital role that information and communication technology sector plays in the development of the country, and it has been identified as one of our priority sectors. There are huge opportunities in this sector and increasingly South African businesses are taking advantage of these opportunities, however, in order for them to be successful they need skilled staff. This Academy and the many more that will be created will act as a feeder for these technology firms and will also empower young woman to start their own businesses and access these local and global opportunities.

To conclude I hope that the significance of this event is not lost on those present today as the Tombo Learning Academy located here in this rural area is providing excellent skills and access to the best of what South Africa has to offer. It provides hope for the future.

With the conclusion of our first ten years of democracy we need to take this opportunity, as I have done today, and critically look at and understand the challenges that we are facing as a country so that we are able to develop appropriate responses. Our response to these challenges will help to inform our programmes in the next decade and will hopefully see the expansion of this programme to more locations around the country.

Issued by: Ministry of Trade and Industry
26 March 2004
Source: Department of Trade and Industry
(http://www.dti.gov.za)

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