Chairperson, hon members, Minister and our honoured guests, a man sustains a badly fractured neck and is bleeding profusely. He groans with pain, but his life cannot be saved. I behead him out of love in order to save him from pain. [Laughter.] It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
The fact of the matter is that the sector education and training authorities, Setas, have failed the youth of this country who find themselves trapped in them, their precious time wasted, and they have been grossly frustrated. Billions of rands in state funds have just gone down the drain. This is evidenced by the huge number of young people who received training in various Setas, and yet the majority of them cannot get placements. The fact that they remain unemployable despite the qualifications they have attained is indicative of the fact that they received irrelevant training which does not appeal to the labour market of this country.
I concur with Minister Pravin Gordhan who, in his Budget Speech on 17 February 2010, said: Our people need hope. Our people want government to lead ... want action on jobs and services, and quality education. We need courage and humility to do things correctly and effectively. Successful social development is not only dependent on government.
Government should allocate more money to skills development so that when real economic growth occurs there will be a sufficient number of highly skilled people in the labour force. The prospect of prosperity is a struggle worth fighting.
It is a sad fact that with all the best resources we have in this country, we are counted amongst the worst in terms of quality performance. With regard to this, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, DBSA, has indicated that of all the SADC countries we spend much more of our budget on education. Nonetheless, the quality we get is very poor. However, we need to take cognisance of the fact that it is not money alone that can produce quality, because many poor countries in Africa, far worse off than in our case, produce better education than we do. One glaring example is Mozambique, the poorest of the poor countries.
There is ample evidence to the effect that governance continues to plague the sector. The Auditor-General has issued disclaimers against the Setas because supporting documents and further explanations on how the funds were utilised could not be provided as required in terms of section 55(1)(a) of the Public Finance Management Act.
The sector's problem is aggravated by the department's reluctance to allocate adequate grants per trainee. For example, the department's grant for Merseta - the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta - is R25 000, whereas the total cost per trainee is R200 000. The industry has to pay R175 000. This is the reason for the industry's reluctance to train for government.
Apprenticeship should be an alternative to Setas. It is therefore imperative to enter into partnerships with big trainers such as Eskom, Telkom, Nissan and BMW so that they can provide both training and guidance on the sort of workforce that should be trained.
Hon Minister, relocate Setas to the industry, where they will be better directed to train the youth in relevant and marketable skills for the betterment of our economy. South African skills development can come to fruition if apprenticeship is returned and trade schools work in close collaboration with industry.
The DA recommends that Seta money be allocated to the expansion of the further education and training colleges. Thank you. [Applause.]