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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says South Africa as a diversified economy needs to focus on skills development to upgrade the young people and society. Minister Davies was speaking at the official opening of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation’s (Necsa) Radiation Protection Training Centre (RPTC) which took place in Pretoria today.
 
“We need to move away from being just exporters of mine products produced with unskilled labour as in the past but focus in the whole area of skills development,” he said.
 
Davies highlighted that there were a variety of applications of radiation technologies across industry even in agriculture. He said if the manufacturing industry was going to make progress it would need to use nuclear technologies across the manufacturing space.
 
He added that the ability to be able to roll-out the use of nuclear and radiation technologies depended on the country’s ability to be able to operate these technologies safely. According to Davies, although nuclear energy is beneficial in a number of ways, there are high levels of risk and accidents that can happen.
 
“We are bound by international conventions, for example, the convention on nuclear safety that requires adequate standards of safety, and these are also required by our national legislation,” he added.
 
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has contributed R3 million for the purchasing of laboratory equipment towards the training of Radiation Protection Officers (RPOs) within the nuclear and non-nuclear industry and Necsa is at the forefront with its training programme.
 
The institution which began operating in March 2013 has already trained hundred RPOs. The training will contribute to the creation of employment, equity and enterprise development in the nuclear industry and other industries including medical industry, mining, security, agriculture, standards, research and development, as well as environmental protection.
 
The Acting CEO of the centre Mr Xolisa Mabhongo said the Pelindaba Radiation Protection Training Centre was the first of its kind for Africa within the nuclear energy industry arena and that it had been internationally benchmarked in line with other nuclear energy training centres around the world.
 
“This centre is a pioneering initiative that will catapult South Africa’s nuclear protection status to new levels. The potential of this training centre is enormous and we are certain that it will create many new opportunities, not only for Necsa, but South Africa and Africa as a whole, by introducing more people to this industry and introducing even more skilled personnel into the sector,” added Mabhongo.
 
He also highlighted that training radiation protection can open doors to various possible careers.