Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members and distinguished guests, I visited a housing development in KwaZulu-Natal a fortnight ago, as part of my constituency work. Upon my arrival, I was confronted by a community of people who had gathered at the construction site office with a labour dispute. They had ordered the development to stop whilst the construction company listened to their grievances. Out in the cane fields, they could see tractors at work preparing sites for building to commence, and already, there were houses being erected. They wanted more people to be employed on the project. Now, this is not a unique story. All of us face the same situation every day as we go into our constituencies. The cry is always for jobs, jobs, jobs!
The Department of Public Enterprises has a new vision:
To drive investment, productivity and transformation in the department's portfolio of state-owned companies, their current customers and suppliers, so as to unlock growth, drive industrialisation, create jobs and develop skills.
This supports the New Growth Path strategy and the Industrial Action Plan policy objectives of government.
I want to focus in my speech today on "create jobs and develop skills". I do this in the face of a new report releasing figures of job losses in the first quarter of the year. Times are really tough!
President Zuma, in his state of the nation address in February, outlined a very busy infrastructure implementation programme between now and 2014, and appealed "to all our people to join hands ... as we deal decisively with the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality".
Amongst the state-owned companies, SOCs, Transnet and Eskom will receive the biggest slice of the R845 billion infrastructure spend. With the building of the Medupi, Kusile and Ingula Power Stations, it is estimated that between them they will create just over 24 000 direct construction jobs and 1 400 ongoing operational jobs. On our oversight visit to Medupi, it was encouraging to see the activity generated and the impact that it was having on Lephalale - a town come alive because of development. In the audited report for Eskom, there was an increase of just under 2 500 jobs created in 2011, bringing the total number of employees to just over 39 000.
We have already referred to Transnet having embarked on a new market demand strategy, with a capital investment programme of R300 billion over the next seven years. This will see the expansion of rail, port and pipeline infrastructure. Currently, the audited figures show an increase of some 3 500 jobs in 2011, bringing the total number employed by Transnet to just over 49 000.
It is interesting that the job-creation impact of the new market demand strategy is estimated to create employment peaking at 588 000 people in 2016-17. The hon Koornhof has referred to this. Of these, Transnet will employ 73 000, inclusive of contractors; 260 000 will benefit from indirect jobs, and 255 000 will benefit from the impact on the wider economy.
In addition, both Eskom and Transnet have a large focus on skills and capacity-building. Transnet will spend R7,6 billion on training over the next seven years. They will step up recruitment in critical skills and expand their annual intake - they plan to have 2 000 apprentices in training at all times, of which Transnet will employ 1 200. There are bursaries and grants for engineering students and chartered accountants; there is technician training.
In addition, management leadership programmes are being run. Eskom, in addition to having just over 5 200 learners in the pipeline, has committed itself to training an additional 5 000 learners. They have 26 training facilities, of which 18 are for artisan training. In 2011, Eskom presented some 6 000 courses. Wow, this is something! Do we even know that it is happening? [Interjections.]
As Parliament, we are concerned at the reported job losses regarding the SA Forestry Company Limited, Safcol, and Denel (Pty) Ltd, who lost 187 and 374 jobs respectively. We are pleased, though, that SAA and SA Express Airways have created extra jobs - 2 023 for SAA and 95 for SA Express. We want to say to the Minister that these SOCs will come under very close scrutiny by Parliament. They have the potential to perform much better. There are employment opportunities here.
On an oversight visit to Safcol - and the Deputy Minister has referred to the expansion that they are planning for this - we saw some of the initiatives that have been started to give people employment. This includes using timber to build a classroom, and running small upholstery businesses. This must be encouraged and expanded.
In his Budget Speech in February, the Minister of Finance said:
Economic uncertainty will be with us for some time, yet we have a programme of economic change that can steadily roll back ...
Sorry, I am just looking at my time.
... unemployment, poverty and inequality.
The ANC has confidence in the direction government is taking with this massive infrastructure spend. It will create employment and provide the necessary skills training for many people - young people, in particular - who are sitting at home with little hope of ever finding a job.
We want to say to the Minister that, as Parliament, we will be very responsible in our oversight role ... [Interjections.] ... to ensure that we get value for money, that the right people fill the vacancies in the strategic positions in the SOCs and that there are competent boards to give direction. This will result in the intended creation of jobs and skills development.
We must not fail. Indeed, we shall not fail! The ANC supports this Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]