Madam Deputy Speaker ... e re le nna ke ise tlotlo go Moporesitente, Motlatsa Moporesitente, Ditona le Maloko otlhe a Palamente. Ke kopa go simolola ka go baakanya kgannyana e nnye e e tlileng le Mme Matladi. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[... honour be to the President, the Deputy President, Ministers and all Members of Parliament. I will begin by rectifying what Mrs Matladi has mentioned.]
You took us by surprise, Madam, when you said Mangope fought for the release of Nelson Mandela. Those of us who operated in that area were shocked. Let me remind you ... mantswe a a tshwanang le: Fa mapantiti a le bitsa le a taboga, mme fa nna ke le bitsa ga le batle go tla. [... words such as: when prisoners call you, you respond, but when I call you, you defy me.]
That statement was referring to Nelson Mandela.
Mr President, when 10% of the population enjoys a 61% share of the total national income in our country, when our economy imports too many goods and services, when our people are less productive, when most of the shops in the townships and villages stand empty, when our people eat from landfill sites, when government is spending billions of rands in an attempt to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and yet the gap keeps on growing, it is clear that we need a new set of rules going forward. It is indeed time to do things differently.
We welcome your approach, sir. We know that with your vision, these problems will be reversed and they will be things of the past, thanks to your leadership.
As we celebrate Madiba's legacy, may I remind the House of a special sitting that was called on 10 May 2004 to mark 10 years of our democracy. Former President Mandela was invited and these were amongst his last words spoken from this podium:
Our democracy must bring its material fruits to all, particularly the poor, marginalised and vulnerable. Our belief in the common good ultimately translates into deep concern for those that suffer want and deprivation of any kind.
The past 15 years of democratic rule in South Africa have been characterised by policy-making and legislative reform aimed at meeting constitutional imperatives. One of the central programmes of reconstruction is the development of human resources. Many South Africans have been excluded from the economic growth of our country because the economy presents opportunities that are skills-based.
As the global economy turns the corner, levels of innovation and competitiveness are certainly going to continue to grow faster, and South Africa dare not be left behind. It follows that we need to sharpen the skills levels of our citizens, among other things, so that our economy increases its innovation and competitiveness levels.
Most importantly, in our quest to sharpen the skills of citizens, it is critical to ensure that the skills make available opportunities so that all citizens benefit fairly from the economic growth of the country. We, therefore, need to create a cadreship of skills with the necessary capacity to effect and sustain economic growth.
How do we achieve this? From the onset, we need to appreciate our country's history. Apartheid caused most of the population to be structurally unskilled and created a reservoir of unemployable citizens.
You mentioned, Mr President, on 8 January, that our people are absent in wealth ownership. We cannot continue on that old path where citizens are not motivated to attain education and skills that set the economy on a better footing to respond appropriately to skills needs that necessitate better, faster and sustainable economic growth to benefit all.
Our Ministry is designed to have a strong domestic focus. To this end, I embarked on provincial visits from the beginning of January this year to understand how our policies impact on ordinary South Africans. We held meetings with MECs and their officials and discovered that, amongst other things, there is no co-ordination - not within provinces and/or departments. We, therefore, need to devise a strategy that ensures co- ordination.
To improve at domestic level, especially with regard to the productivity of our people, a paradigm shift is needed. We need a new thinking going forward.
We must support, promote, protect and develop our own natural resources and ensure that more value-adding industries are created. Local products must be supported and procured by government and other government institutions in order to increase local procurement, thus increasing local production and, in turn, creating more sustainable jobs. For instance, when one looks at the 2008-09 imports reports from Sars, one realises that the bulk of what we imported into our country could easily have been produced or manufactured locally, provided we had increased our economy's competitiveness.
If we do not increase our competitiveness through, amongst other things, skilling our human resources in the medium to long term, we shall continue to pay billions for avoidable imports and create fewer jobs.
We, therefore, need to understand that human resources, not capital, income or material resources constitute the ultimate bases for the wealth of our nation. Capital and natural resources are passive factors of production. Human beings are the active agents who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources, build social, economic and political organisations and carry forward national development.
Clearly, if we continue to be unable to develop the skills and knowledge of our people and to utilise them effectively in the national economy, we will fail in increasing our competitiveness and in keeping up with the global economy.
Mr President, we welcome your new approach for all government institutions not to work in silos, but to work as a collective. In the past 10 years, there has been an emphasis on policy-making and less focus on implementation and the capacities required to do so.
Related to this is the challenge of co-ordination between departments. Over the years, departments have simultaneously, and more or less independently, promulgated numerous Acts from a departmental point of view. For example, different notions have existed between government departments regarding SMMEs' training needs.
Some departments favoured internships for SMMEs, while others identified learnerships as the appropriate instrument. There has also been a degree of policy incoherence between some departments resulting in a constrained economy. We are happy that this is now a thing of the past.
The people of South Africa are the country's most important asset. If all South Africans are to participate meaningfully in economic, political and industrial capacitation and social development, they must not only have general capabilities such as the ability to read, count and write.
It is important that they realise that the economy is complex and changing, characterised by increasing use of information, more complex technologies and a general rise in the skill requirements of jobs.
We, therefore, need to assist our people to have rising levels of applied competences. Knowledge economy is the way to go. To that end, we should also lead by example. Let us not be scared of those little computers we have, hon members. Some of the arguments advanced such as, "My e-mail is broken", do not help the cause because it never breaks.
We, therefore, call on the higher education institutions to build adequate capacities that can absorb more learners. Not only should they build the capacity to absorb more learners, but most importantly, the capacity to teach and produce graduates with the essential educational foundation that can adapt to the ever-changing needs of the economy. The institutions must respond to the skills needs of the economy.
It follows that we need to develop and strengthen learnership programmes to encourage graduates to understand the functioning of a growing economy through a well-procured career guidance strategy. To this end, the use of career guidance and employment services must be closely linked to the economic development of the country.
We must recognise the importance of career guidance as a facilitation process for the overall human resource development strategies if we want to be competitive in the global markets.
A strategic career guidance programme must be introduced as a policy response to this issue. Such a programme should facilitate school-to-work transition in a culturally enabling environment. The role of career guidance and employment services is important in the process of school-to- work transition and labour market intermediation.
The delivery of these services in a developing context brings about many challenges. These challenges need to be addressed through a co-ordinated framework of policies and the establishment of services across the different relevant sectors. This can only be achieved through knowledge gained from research - research that can identify the needs of the employers in the different sectors. The challenge in skills development can be seen as being both policy design or co-ordination, as well as limited implementation. Seta training programmes must be well designed, well targeted, and rolled out fully. This must be done efficiently by pooling financial resources and developing cross-Seta training programmes.
The South African government has committed itself to taking concrete steps to raise the skills profile of the labour market. In as much as government will put an effort into ensuring that the country produces enough graduates in the most needed disciplines, it will be in vain if private and public sector employers are not prepared to train these graduates.
It is of great concern that both private and public sector employers have significantly reduced the intake of graduates into their internship programmes. If we want to build a skilled nation we cannot continue with the practice where the economy's critical players do not take their rightful lead in increasing skills through on-the-job training programmes.
It is important for employers in all sectors to realise that government ignites the fire for skills development that is geared to effect and sustain economic growth. It is through them that the flame will continue to burn.
Many policies, strategies and approaches have and will be put in place by government to ensure that we create skills, but if employers are not going to respond to government efforts by ensuring adequate on-the-job training programmes, we are not going to create a cadreship of skills that will effect and sustain economic growth.
Research reveals that SMMEs employ around 52% of all employees in South Africa. If these figures are anything to go by, we dare not turn a blind eye to this reality. It is evident that SMMEs, and to some extent co- operatives, are amongst the best drivers that will effect faster, better and sustainable economic growth. We, therefore, need to further encourage the formation of successful SMMEs and co-operatives.
Currently, SMMEs and co-operatives have a major failure rate. It is not because the owners lack the moral willingness to operate successful businesses, but, amongst other things, they lack the fundamental skills to do so. It follows that we need to intensify our efforts to empower surviving SMMEs.
Given South Africa's history, there is a strong need to address the imbalances of the past, hence economic and industrial-driven policies are necessary in the South African economy. Let us be strong and build a cadreship of skills just as we did in the struggle to gain power.
Mr President, your leadership has energised the nation and there is a lot of hope. Let us not betray the trust the nation has in us.
Apartheid did not have parents when we started here in 1994; democracy had too many parents because people did not want to be associated with apartheid. When the hon member from the UCDP mentioned that her party was also fighting for Comrade Mandela, it didn't come as a shock, because when people come to this podium, they all claim to be heroes. The only thing that I want to help her with is, if you need the police, you don't phone 10999 because you will not find them, it is 10111. I thank you. [Applause.]