Issued by: North West Communication Service
AN ADDRESS BY NORTH WEST PREMIER POPO MOLEFE TO THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE INSTITUTE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT SUN CITY OCTOBER 21 1996.
Chairperson, President of IPM, Esteemed participants, Respected delegates.
I would like to thank you very much for the opportunity to be a little part of this significant gathering. I hope the past year has been a successful one both for the IPM and for its members.
This convention is taking place against the background of the country having achieved a successful political transition. That success has been achieved because of the broad national consensus created around the vision of reconstruction and development and its pillars of democracy and nation-building.
This climate has presented the government, the private sector and civil society with an opportunity to focus their attentions to other and more critical challenges facing the country.
One of these challenges is how to translate the key programmes of the RDP into practical and implementable actions that will meet the basic needs of the majority of the people.
It is the challenge of generating and developing our human resources, without which the socio economic aspirations of the people would be difficult to meet.
It is a call for concerted efforts to develop requisite skills, institutional and organisational capacity of the people and to rectify the serious damage which our past history has inflicted on our human resources.
The Institute of Personnel Management has a vast wealth of experience, technology and skills which stand it in good stead to continue playing a leading role in the efforts needed to achieve this.
WHY DO WE NEED HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
There is no gain saying the obvious fact that the centrepiece of apartheid's mechanism of social control and of its economic growth strategy was the deliberate denial of opportunities to the majority, and black youth in particular. Inevitably, this has stunted the intellectual prowess and productivity of the nation as a whole.
The result is that poverty and degradation exist side by side with developed mining, industrial and commercial infrastructure. Our income distribution is racially distorted and ranks as one of the most unequal in the world.
Workers are poorly equipped for the rapid changes taking place in the world economy. Small and medium enterprises are underdeveloped, while highly protected industries lower investment in research, development and training.
In every sphere of our society, economic, social, legal, moral, cultural, environmental, South Africans are confronted by serious challenges. Only a comprehensive approach to harnessing the Human Resources of our country can reverse the crisis that is the legacy from the past, because no political democracy can survive and flourish if the majority of its people are not equipped with the skills required to participate in the process towards the goals they have themselves helped to define.
This convention and the IPM in particular, is therefore especially critical for South Africa's future, for none of the intentions to ensure Economic Growth, International Competitiveness and Equity, will be realised if we do not develop the requisite skills.
INVOLVEMENT OF HRD INSTITUTIONS
Chairperson, it is neither desirable, nor possible, for the Government to create new institutions to carry out this task. We intend to maximise use of existing resources. We have therefore challenged existing institutions, Universities, Technikons, Technical colleges, private industry, as well as non-governmental organisations to respond to the programme by transforming themselves and the way they work.
They have to transform themselves to be able to provide the facilities to train both the civil service and the communities. Of critical importance is the need to pay particular attention to the human resource needs of marginalised communities, especially rural communities, workers, women, the disabled and the youth in key areas such as: capacity development for the planning and management of RDP projects and community issues a culture of learning in the schools tertiary education and especially the prioritisation of science, technology and engineering upgrading of skills training and managerial training for commerce and in industry and the vital area of vocational, technical and scientific training.
HRD AND THE CIVIL SERVICE
Contrary to popular belief, the civil service disposes of considerable competence and skills that are needed to provide an excellent quality of service that is crucial to the development of a vibrant private sector.
But there is considerable room to rebuild it to become effective and efficient, accessible to all, transparent, accountable and free of corruption and maladministration. In this context a change of focus is required.
I wish to refer briefly to a number of issues that we have identified as calling for attention: management techniques have to a large extent been focusing too much on administration and too little on management. the citizen has often been regarded more as a passive consumer and less as an active participant in governance and there has been scant regard for human resource developmental training.
There is also an ongoing debate on the intricate and sensitive issue of the composition of the civil service and the quest for representivity. There are a few matters that necessitate attention and they include the following:
Although some 36 per cent of public sector employees are white, some 80 per cent of middle and senior management positions are held by white males. It is important therefore to address these imbalances through a programme of affirmative action.
Women constitute about 54 per cent of the adult population, but represent less than ten per cent of management in the public sector. Steps are needed to address their training and development needs. This must contribute towards women's empowerment, the development of their potential and the expansion of equal opportunities for women.
As a result of past policies, the 1,2 million strong civil service accounts for 60 per cent of the total consumption expenditure of government.
It is only fair that concern has been raised about the level of productivity in the civil service. In the absence of a proper system for the evaluation of performance, the relationship between income and performance cannot be judged accurately.
In the process of rebuilding the civil service, the aim is not only to address disparities but also to establish a proactive programme to eliminate racism, gender inequality and other forms of anomalies wherever they manifest themselves. And within the context of building an effective and efficient civil service additional steps need to be taken, including soliciting assistance from our development partners, to speed up an integrated process of comprehensive restructuring, reorganisation and rationalisation. At the same time appropriate steps such as strategic management, change management, organisational development and human resource development and training, need to be intensified.
In this way we can build capacity and competence to meet existing and new challenges, enhance the process of governance, improve service delivery, and thereby strengthen our efforts to deliver the RDP.
LABOUR MARKET AND HRD
Although South Africa is well-endowed with considerable human and natural resources, it has an extremely high incidence of poverty, a direct outcome of its unequal income distribution, high unemployment and distorted skills profile.
Millions in the African and coloured population live in poverty. 95% of the poor are African, and 65% of Africans are poor. Of the total coloured population, 33% live in poverty while 0,7% of whites can be classified as poor. About 64% of the African economically active population between the ages of 16 and 24 (about one million youth) are part of the total four million unemployed Africans.
This high rate of unemployment amongst the nation's young people may well contribute to desperate and criminal measures.
African unemployment is also higher in the rural areas than in urban areas.
The new government has been confronted with two critical challenges: first, a non-existent labour market policy and a terrible legacy of ingrained discrimination and inequality, conflict on the shop floor, low levels of productivity and a great absence of managerial and technical skills required to drive an internationally uncompetitive economy.
A new labour market policy is required not only to meet the challenge of job creation to solve the unemployment crisis, but also to strengthen South Africa's position in the context of global competition where high productivity and quality are part of the norm.
The government is engaged in the development of a coherent human resource development policy to focus on skills acquisition and adult basic education and training.
But I wish to pause here and leave the rest on this topic to Minister Tito Mboweni.
BUILDING THE ECONOMY AND HRD
The government's central goal for its macro-economic strategy is to create a strong and balanced economy which will among others, create jobs that are sustainable and at the same time democratise economic activity to bring on board the small enterprise sector.
All over the world it has been recognised that the small business sector plays an important if not critical role in the economic and social development of a country.
Given South Africa's legacy of big business domination, constrained competition and unequal distribution of income and wealth, the small sector is seen as an important force to generate employment, to activate competition, to exploit niche markets, enhance productivity and through all of this stimulate economic development.
In comparison to big business, small business face a wider range of constraints and problems, and are less able to address the obstacles on their own. For Africans, the constraints have been particularly hard on entrepreneurs in rural areas and on women.
These constraints relate, among others to the acquisition of skills and managerial experience, and opportunities for the acquisition of technical and professional skills, both the legacy of Bantu Education.
In addition, the policies of social engineering confined the majority of the African people to homeland areas which are today not only the poorest in terms of living standards and business opportunities, but also need a dynamic business environment. The active promotion and support for small enterprises depends on a wide range of factors.
The acquisition of relevant vocational, technical business skills is generally regarded as one of the critical factors for success in small enterprises. The rapid proliferation of survivalist enterprises presents the government and the established private sector with a unique opportunity to accelerate the process of expanding economic activity through small-business oriented education and training. Through the development of modern skills, the RDP can truly become a people-driven process.
I wish you all fruitful deliberations and a memorable stay in this exotic paradise of the land of the Lost City.