Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, the ANC resolved to develop the HR Development Programme in the public service, building capacity in municipalities, in civil society and in the key areas of service delivery affecting the social transformation programmes. I will be addressing personal establishment and vacancy rates as well as skills development and training programmes.
We have seen a lot of transformation taking place in the departments in terms of historically disadvantaged individuals, women and the disabled. Vacancy rates are however still high in the departments. Explanations of high staff turnovers, recruitment and retention strategies were given but some of the clerical posts were still not filled.
As a result service delivery is compromised, to the disadvantage of the communities. This leads to unfair underspending and shifting of funds from compensation of employees to other activities within the departments. The use of consultants by some departments also needs to be re-examined, as some of these services could have been performed in more cost effective ways.
The government has made some resources available for skills development and training programmes, but the departments have problems of capacity to address these skills shortages. Departments presented training programmes, which aimed at improving the performance of employees. Learnerships are done and expose the interns to the work environment, which will also prepare them and give them experience when employed. The impact of this programme is still to be measured.
Youth unemployment is still high according to the latest Labour Force Survey. Most of them depend on social grants received by their parents and can end up in the poverty trap if the existing interventions are not implemented.
The following agencies will be addressing skills development within government institutions and the communities: SAMDI - the SA Management Development Institute - has a unit that addresses organizational knowledge, research and development and linking management with other institutions and also looking at workplace skills training.
The Setas have not produced results and as a result, due to their non- performance, they should be re-examined and identified and those that are underperforming should be closed.
Jipsa is a skills development project of Asgisa. There are targeted skills for development which should be acquired in the shortest possible time. This is a very good programme, as it addresses engineering and planning in transport and municipalities and information and technology. We would just like to know the number of engineers that have already been trained and how they have addressed the skills shortages in general thus far.
The state-owned enterprises, although not funded for this purpose, can also contribute towards national skills development through their technical expertise.
The Expanded Public Works Programme has done a lot of work and we have seen some of the people being employed and others creating their own jobs and employing other people.
The nursing colleges and other sector institutions should be re-opened and train people in proportion to the vacancies within those departments.
The Department of Education and Training is a department which saw additional funds allocated at 11,8% over the MTEM. It is being restructured, and exposure to education should start at an early age and become a culture right through the children's lives. It is also fundamental for education to be aligned with the economic needs of the country.
We have Early Childhood Development, which, if well administered, should see all the ECD centres being registered and the practitioners in those centres being trained. But, unfortunately, most of these institutions, which are crches, are not yet registered and their practitioners are not trained.
The Further Education and Training Colleges train students from NQF levels 2 to 4 and have increased the number of semi-skilled workers. The number of high school drop-outs has, as a result, declined because students who are not academically inclined tend to turn to Further Education and Training Colleges and then, as a result, fill vacancies existing within the departments.
Funding of Higher Education Institutions is also important, because this is for transformation of the institutions and is a positive step as the department itself will champion the whole process of transformation and plan it in line with the development of the country.
The Department of Education needs proper infrastructure as its good establishment will lead to more skills training and more qualified people within all the levels of the departments. After restructuring this will alleviate the lack of funds by parents who are not able to send their children to these institutions for training because of a lack of money.
The department has released school infrastructure report cards, which have highlighted the progress made since 1996 and where there are still shortcomings. This is of great concern, because the infrastructure grant to the provinces has been revised by R2,7 billion to address the school infrastructure shortages but there are some instances where this infrastructure grant is not being used and the department itself is lagging behind with the development of infrastructure in other areas.
We can remember the late Podu Mamabolo who stated long ago in his song "Thuto [Education]" that "Matsatsing a lehono go nyakega thuto" [Nowadays education is essential]. Today we realise that there are many opportunities of "thuto" and we can utilize that benchmarking to ascertain what was lacking during Podu Mamambolo's time and what we have today, because this department is an engine driving the economic development of our country.
Portfolio committees are in a position to follow up on the department's human resources plans, the approvals of those departments and the implementation during their interaction and oversight with their relevant departments.
The ANC supports this statement. Thank you. [Applause.]