3 June 2010
Telkom CFO Peter Nelson
Telkom SA Managing Director Nombulelo Moholi Awards Chairman Chris Gilmour Classic Business Anchor John Fraser Award Nominees
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
In a week, the eyes of the world will be on South Africa as we host the 2010 Soccer World Cup spectacular. Considering the emotional roller coaster ride we have been on over the past few years over Bafana Bafana’s performance, I am hoping also to receive an invitation to a “sports” journalist of the Year awards in the hope of getting some insights from our training camp.
Nevertheless, I am delighted to be here to honour the top performing business journalists in our country. The financial media in South Africa appears to be extremely competitive and niche-driven. Therefore it would not be an easy feat to judge these awards let alone to win it. Let me therefore congratulate all the nominees and winners today for making your mark in your fraternity.
I accepted the invitation to speak at this function as I thought it would be an opportunity to engage with you the leading business journalists on some issues which rarely make the business pages despite the fact that higher education and training is as much an economic issue as it is a social one. The financial media pays little attention to significant developments and the evolving higher education and training landscape despite the fact our plans and programmes will have far reaching consequences for the country’s economy. For those of you driven by boardroom battles and the bustle of corporate SA, issues such as critical skills shortages and the tragedy of millions of young people with no education, no employment and broken dreams are outside your purview.
With little media attention on these issues, it is easy for corporate SA to shirk its responsibilities to help tackle these challenges. We in government are determined to build a solid base for a post school education and training system that will be the lifeblood of the social and economic development of our country for generations to come. Government’s prioritisation of education is evident in the budget allocation of 19.9 percent of the total national budget to education and training. This is motivated by the fact that without a sound foundation of education, the potential for social and economic development is diminished. That prospect holds severe consequences for our entire country, including corporate South Africa.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am not here to detract from the tremendous achievements and efforts of the media to keep our democracy alive and thriving, and to expose inefficiencies and failings in government where they exist. I do want to urge you though to pay some attention to work government is doing to reverse the cycle of poverty and hopelessness, to create decent work and to fulfil our election promises.
In the Department of Higher Education and Training, there is intensive work underway to develop an appropriate post-school system which responds to our country’s unique conditions. We recognised that our policy levers to achieve faster growth and development, higher employment and reduced levels of poverty include skills development to support labour-intensive industries, infrastructure investment and rural development. We face major challenges with regard to skills development. If we are to succeed in removing the structural impediments to faster job growth, we must ensure that young and less-skilled workers can access jobs. We must also ensure that further education and training programmes provide the real-world skills needed by public and private sector employers. We have also to assist learners to move between learning and work.
In April, I released for public comment the draft National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) III which will direct the skills levy from next April. One of its key targets is to use the skills levy funds to incentivise firms to open up structured workplace learning for college students as well as for university and university of technology students.
In March, under the chairmanship of the Deputy President, we launched the Human Resource Development Council which among others comprises representatives of business, labour, academia, research organisations, the skills sector and the development sector. This council aims to promote optimal participation of all stakeholders in the planning, stewardship, and monitoring and evaluation of human resource development activities in the country.
In February, we launched the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO), a body to support and improve quality assurance for learning in and for the workplace. The QCTO brings the needs of industry closer to the education and training system to better meet the aspirations of youth and adults and to ensure that education, training and skills development initiatives respond adequately to our social and economic needs. It will ensure qualifications better linked to labour market and broader societal needs.
These ladies and gentlemen, you will agree, are significant developments which will have major consequences for future generations of school leavers. In spite of this, I have not yet seen proper interrogation of the NSDS III, the QCTO or the HRD Council in the mainstream media. How then is the media, the watchdogs of our society supposed to assess the performance of government departments, if journalists don’t even take cursory note of such developments? I do not wish to get into a debate over the nature of news but I also do not buy the argument that only sleaze and scandal sell. In a developing country such as ours, the sharing of factual information and knowledge is essential to healthy societal debates.
If truths are uncomfortable, so be it. But together let us have a more rigorous debate about the sort of people we are bringing in to the workforce, what type of skills they need, and how ready they are to rise to the challenge of building a thriving economy, a bustling and dynamic African nation.
At the end of every year, some newspapers score Cabinet ministers according to some superficial criteria which seem to take into account who gives better sound bites rather than delivery and accomplishment.
Just as Telkom and Classic 102.7 are rewarding you today on the basis of good quality journalism, government expects to be evaluated on real criteria. The tendency of some journalists to turn Cabinet ministers into beauty contestants is deceitful. This is the reason the delivery contracts of Cabinet ministers will be released after the mid-year lekgotla so that the public can hold us accountable for what we are mandated to do.
While continued focus on government delivery and performance is necessary, there also needs to be equal attention on the business sector. The reason we see Ponzi schemes and the like being exposed and the revelations about executives whose rewards expand as their businesses contract is through islands of good journalism.
While politics seems to be a source of endless scandal it would appear that much of the misdemeanours conducted in the name of business can be swept under the carpet. For example, despite the startling revelations by the Competition Commission on the collusion of banks over bank charges, the issue has disappeared off the radar. The banks pretend there was no such finding and the financial media has allowed them to sweep the matter under the carpet while South African consumers are burdened with hefty charges. This is unacceptable and needs to be challenged immediately by all sectors of society including the media.
There is also a false perception that corruption and bad performance is only exposed by the media and the opposition. This is simply not true. There is a growing campaign at all levels of government to root out corruption and to deal with poor performance.
I have said repeatedly since taking office that “tenderpreneurs” will not be tolerated in the higher education and training system and corruption of any form will be severely dealt with.
In the same way, bad performance and mismanagement of our education and training institutions will be swiftly dealt with. For a long while, there have been negative perceptions of some Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) which are central to our skills development and training programmes.
This morning, the Chairpersons of the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA), the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA), the Manufacturing Advertising Publishing, Printing, Packaging Sector Education Training Authority (MAPPPSETA) and the Energy Sector Education and Training Authority (ESETA) would have received letters from me indicating our intention to place them under administration and requesting their response within 14 days. This action follows repeated poor performance in all cases over a period of four years. Governance and financial mismanagement, general non compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and the Skills Development Act lies at the centre of this poor performance.
I am hoping that this sends out a firm message that we are serious about service performance and delivery and that we will not tolerate mediocrity, any form of mismanagement or non-performance.
Ladies and gentlemen, in seven days time, we look forward to performance excellence from Bafana Bafana. I am confident they will do us proud.
Through a partnership with all sectors of society, we have worked intensively over the past six years to prepare our country for this showpiece. I am confident that the hundreds of thousands of visitors who will flock to our nation will discover something that we South Africans sometimes forget. We live in a truly wonderful country, full of natural beauty and gifted, talented, wonderful people.
Let us build on the spirit of the World Cup and keep building our country.
All of us, including the media, have a vital role to play in this mission.
Let me finally congratulate all the winners of the Telkom Classic Business Journalist of the Year Awards and the sponsors Telkom and Classic 102.7 for promoting excellence in journalism.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Ranjeni Munusamy
Tel: 012 312 5555
Cell: 072 571 2812
E-mail: munusamy.r@dhet.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Higher Education and Training
3 June 2010
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