Date: 06/03/2007

Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government

Title: Peters: Launch of Morolong Vocational Training Centre

Speech by Northern Cape Premier, Honourable Mme Dipuo Peters at the launch of the Joe Morolong Vocational Training Centre at the Mothibistad Shopping Centre, Kuruman

Programme Director,
MEC for Education, Mr Gomolemo Lucas,
Mayors and Councillors,
United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) Chairman, Lazarus Mbethe,
Russian Ambassador, Mr Anatoly Makarov,
Community Trust representative, Mr George Mokgoro,
Business representatives,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I join all of you today in celebrating the coming to fruition of this much needed facility for our people. My excitement is heightened by the fact that this facility is being opened in a community that has endured the hardships for far too long. Our participation this morning is motivated by a sense of appreciation to United Manganese of Kalahari for assisting us as government in addressing challenges facing our poor communities by making a meaningful intervention through this Vocational Training Centre.

We thank you for your foresight and vision which we believe is intertwined with our programme of action; that of bringing about fundamental changes in the lives of our people through skills intervention and unlocking the potential of our people. Our people suffer from extreme high levels of unemployment, poverty and homelessness. The majority of households in this area live in conditions characterised by dependency on social grants to make ends meet.

The sad reality about these challenges is that the overwhelming number of affected people in these hardships is women. The troubles and struggles of communities in enrolling their children in training centres will soon be a thing of the past. 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, I am pleased to join all of you today in launching this initiative which seeks our fundamental challenges as a province.

The apartheid education system deskilled our people and has therefore failed to produce the human resource required to deal with developmental initiatives. By opening this facility today we have placed a permanent sign that indeed we are serious about providing services to our people.

It is our understanding as the provincial government that skills 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.

In my State of the Province Address, we made 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 our Human Resource Development Strategy which was launched by the Deputy President-Mme Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in Kimberley on Saturday, 27 January 2007, will provide all of us with 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, our human resource development strategy has its origins in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) 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.

It is our hope and wish that this vocational training centre will address the major human resource capacity constraints currently hampering the effective and equitable delivery of services across all sectors in our province. This centre ties in well with 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 human resource development 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. Skills development is considered as the engine of economic development. Our human resource strategy is therefore the ideal tool that we can collectively use to address socio-economic challenges facing our province.

I wish to extend our gratitude to the United Manganese of Kalahari for assisting us as a province in reaching an important milestone in locating human resource development. 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.

Unfortunately the restructuring of our economy in the past 11 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 skills development and the potential they have in contributing to our economy cannot be overemphasised. 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 centre we will be able to develop a pool of skilled men and women, increase savings and investments and improve the social and economic well being of our people. We believe that through our partnership with you, we will be able to establish and expand a viable and dynamic distinctive sector of the economy that responds to the social and economic conditions of our people.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our understanding that through this launch today we will amass much needed support from other stakeholders who have not yet heeded to our call, and together promote and develop a greater number of economic opportunities for our people.

What is of critical importance is that, because of our overlapping needs, we should be able to utilise some of the support mechanisms to provide assistance to all sectors. 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 today will join hands with us in contributing towards making this centre a success 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 our Human Resource Development 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. Ladies and gentlemen, in the development of human capital we can together ensure our resources, human and material, are used for sustainable economic and social development. We need all of you to help to look at how we can create exit paths, long and short staircases to move people out of the second economy.

The proposed employment subsidy for first entrants into the labour market as announced by our President in his State of the Nation Address provides one such facilitated entry into the world of work hopefully for millions who at 35+ have never had a job. We need the private sector in this regard to work with us to make this ambitious plan a reality. Together we must end dualism in the economy. The key features of the second economy include low skills, inability to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), burden of diseases, plus the possibility that poverty will be passed on to the next generation. This is the reality we have to change.

Our infrastructure and construction sectors are booming although we have challenges of cost capital goods. Tourism is booming and has very good prospects and there are significant opportunities in other sectors such as agriculture in our province. All of these need skills. 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.

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. It is in this light that we commend you for this venture for the role it will play in skills acquisition. Job opportunities and sustainable jobs are key in our efforts to ensure that we use the opportunities presented to us as the province. The backlogs that we have should actually be seen as an investment opportunity for business because this is an opportunity to partner government and also contribute towards addressing them.

The backlogs in housing, roads and others such infrastructure are lucrative opportunities where business can partner and set up new creative ways of addressing the multitude of challenges that confront our local municipalities and also ensuring social delivery.

Not only would such also enhance stability and deal with raising the incomes of people, but actually enhance the infrastructure which will be the key to raise the profitability of our enterprises and therefore even much greater chances to win many more awards next time around. An unknown writer once said: "all the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today," so if we fail to nurture our seeds of democracy and transformation we'll have nothing to show in future. As we officially launch this initiative, we bring new life and hope to our people, we open up the doors of training to signify our commitment but most of all we open this facility to build new memories of a better life for all our people.

To all of you who enrolled for training this year, we wish you all the best. Just remember that success is the ultimate demonstration of resilience. Only those who have the patience to do their best will ever acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.

Use the skills you acquire wisely as it is not a question of how much you know but what use you make if what you know. Let me conclude by appealing to all of you, that let each one of us lend a hand in doing simple things that will make a difference in the lives of the poor. Our practical actions must ensure that none can challenge us when we say: we are a nation at work to build a better life.

Thank you for the hard work.

Good luck to you and the community. I thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
6 March 2007