*Address of the Minister of Higher Education and Training *
/on the occasion of the /
*POPCRU 7th National Congress Gala Dinner *
/14th June 2011, University of Free State/
*Delivered by Deputy Minister Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize *
Comrades, this is my first public appearance after the burial of the
most dignified woman freedom fighter of our lifetime, Mama Albertina
Sisulu. We are proud to have been breastfed by her. We continue to be
inspired by her strategy and tactics above everything her values,
including embracing family life and respect for the other.
It is an honour for me to be invited by default to the high level
national congress of POPCRU taking place in our historic province during
the historic month. Minister Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher
Education and Training was looking forward to an opportunity to address
you, but due to pressing government commitments, he cannot be with you
tonight.
Mr President and comrades, allow me to add a word of welcome to POPCRU's
new graduates from the Universities of Western Cape and Witwatersrand
and all other POPCRU learners present here tonight. To the graduates, I
hope you will learn as members share about the historical struggles of
POPCRU and pick up the baton so as to ensure that the revolutionary and
transformative role of POPCRU is sustained with vigour and determination.
*POPCRU today*
The Congress Theme is "21 years of consolidating working class power
within the criminal justice system". Congresses by nature give members
an opportunity to reflect on the status of the organization, interrogate
gains made and articulate outstanding challenges. The 21st birthday is
normally a stage which is associated with strength and maturity.
In the case of POPCRU, you have certainly struggled against the social
ills of the apartheid regime and the challenges in democracy. In
praising you, I would like to reiterate the words of the General
Secretary of COSATU, Cde Zwelinzima Vavi during your 6th National
Congress in June 2007, when he said "Your union has truly taken the
process of organizational development to heart, you have taken forward
our commitment to uniting all workers in each sector under our
affiliates. You have managed to maintain solidarity through difficult
strikes in sectors still known for repressive labour relations".
I must also applaud POPCRU in its efforts to advance the working class
struggles in education and the design of the skills development
landscape. We recall that, amongst others:
* You have hosted an iconic National Political School in the
history of the organization,
* You have finalized the Revised Basic Shop Steward Manual for
capacitating our leaders and shop stewards alike,
* You continue to participate actively in all COSATU,DITSELA and
SETAs Education and Skills Developmental activities,
* POPCRU Women Development Programmes in partnership with the
University of Western Cape has gone to greater levels with an
Advanced Programme in progress, and lastly
* You continue to focus on skills development for your workers.
You should be proud that some major shifts in Government policies are as
a result of your voice and your struggles within the Alliance.
Certainly, this Congress gives members an opportunity to make a careful
assessment of challenges faced by members within our democratic
dispensation. It is therefore logical to challenge the new leadership to
use lessons learnt, in further repositioning POPCRU.
As the representatives of the working class, you have a mammoth task at
hand.
Our society is ranked amongst the most unequal in the world. This
inequality is due to the painful history we come from as a country.
The apartheid government used education, labour laws and plies as a
machinery to create the poorest of the poor working class.Unfortunately,
that legacy is still with us today.
Our Democratic Government's economic policies have had unintended
consequences.
The growth of the economy without job creation has failed the working
class. It has widened the gap between the haves and have not's. Hence
today we are concerned about the high levels of unemployment, lack of
human security and lack of skills for supporting the economic growth path.
*The mandate of the DHET and the Skills Development Pipeline*
Comrades, as you are all aware, President Jacob Zuma declared 2011 "the
Year of Economic Transformation and Job Creation". The only way to
achieve this objective is for us to ensure that we have skilled and
capable workforce, by providing quality education and training. We also
have a responsibility to address the skills shortage in critical areas
such as engineering, science and
*Technology, professional careers, technicians, artisans and other trade
related areas.*
The creation of the Department of Higher Education and Training
presented an opportunity to integrate higher education and training with
skills development.
It further ensured an enhanced budget for skills development. The
strategy is to produce on an ongoing basis a skilled and capable
workforce for an inclusive growth path.
In January this year, the Department launched an improved National
Skills Development Framework III [NSDS III].The NSDS III is a strategic
skills development framework, resulting from NSDS I&II, both of which
were previously located in the Department of Labour.
One of the fundamental principles of the strategy is to build
partnerships with all stakeholders and to ensure that we improve the
outcomes in skills development. The labour movement is one such critical
partner.
*SETAs Landscape*
The Department of Higher Education and Training through Sector Education
and Training Authorities [SETAs], is in the process of evaluating the
outputs of NSDS II, and developing a five year implementation plan for
NSDS III. Based on these outputs, the NSDS II links skills development
to cater career paths, career development and the promotion of
sustainable employment and work based experience. The strategy also puts
an emphasis on forging partnerships between employers, public education
institutions, SETAs and private training providers, so as to ensure that
inter-sectoral and cross-sectoral experiences are shared.
The NSDS III talks to a vision and political will, to decisively shape
the skills acquisition landscape, transfer of technology and education
and training, which are all pillars of our economic participation and
sustainable development.
Our ultimate agenda is to support a thriving and a competitive economy,
characterised by mass based and grass root participation, including
rural based economic participation.
The SETAs are critical in the achievement of the NSDS II goals.
Transformation of the SETA's are underway to ensure that at least some
fundamental areas of concern are addressed in order to accelerate their
relevance and appropriateness in line with national priorities.
The National Growth Path [NGP] policy compels us to deliver a radical
review of the training system and to address shortfalls in areas of
critical skills. The NGP also identifies the improvement in skills as
one of the low hanging fruits, that could be accelerated so as realize
the impact on poverty reduction and the promotion of social cohesion
timorously.
POPCRU has been mandated to chair all the Chambers at SASSETA, as well
as to represent Labour at the National Skills Authority under COSATU.
These are important institutions in the skills development landscape and
your participation and input into these, will help to realize the
desired output.
I also need to remind you of the areas that need more attention from
POPCRU, amongst others, the finalization of the SETA Representatives
Accountability Guidelines, so as to ensure that Worker Control is
asserted as and when comrades are mandated to represent the
organization, and the roll-out of capacity building programmes to all
members in all Provinces.
Comrades, your participation in the SETAs will take us forward and
ensure that we work together towards building these institutions and
ensuring that they play a significant role in the skills development
revolution, but also that they claim their rightful place in the
education and training landscape. A direct benefit for your members is
that they can achieve professionalism and become a competent workforce
in the eyes of the people through skills development and training for life.
Organized Labour has a significant role to play in assisting the
department to ensure that we build the SETAs. We welcome the approach
taken thus far and appeal that we continue to work together in ensuring
that the process is given the respect and understanding it deserves. As
the Department we will strive to do better and engage in consultations
with various stakeholders.
We must always be cognisant of the fact that skills development is not
for its own sake, given the history of our country and the current
context of inequality in particular. Hence in addition to addressing the
critical skills shortage, skills development interventions must be
socially transformative and ensure that the sectors are demographically
representative and there are opportunities for all, taking into
consideration issues of gender, disability and rural communities. Our
budget will be aligned with the aforementioned developmental and
transformative imperatives.
Admittedly, the task at hand is complex and calls for mass mobilization
as the Government policies and strategies around skills development are
beginning to touch the raw nerve of the apartheid laager.
Within our skills development pipeline workplace experience is
non-negotiable.
Key to this initiative is the training of young people in the workplace.
We have an anomaly in South Africa, in that there are a high proportion
of young people who require work placement for training purposes and
they are unable to find it.
Where they find it, there are challenges with regard to mentoring. Older
workers should be urged to mentor and pass on experience to young
employees instead of seeing them as a threat.
As the Department we are pushing for all workplace to be opened up for
training purposes and that Government, as an employer and the private
sector should allow for the workplace to build the skills of this
country. We need organized Labour to also play a part in this area and
ensure that there is no exploitation and abuse of young workers in the
form of cheap labour by employers.
Also central to the NSDS III, is the support for the worker initiated
training and the training that supports and builds the trade union members.
Trade Union's Worker Education and Training initiatives are able to use
the critical networks of their organizations [eg. Shop Stewards and
Union Officials], to educate their members and other workers to suit
their needs in manner that is beneficial to the economy as a whole.
To achieve this we need to plough the principle that a Shop Steward must
be life-long learner who should strive to always broaden, deepen and
enhance their understanding on how Trade Unions operate and that
experience to galvanize power for and on behalf of workers is acquired
by actually doing the practical work representing members diligently at
all times.
The POPCRU's National Political School is a clear demonstration of the
importance of the training of Union members. It has provided a necessary
platform to bring to the fore the critical challenges facing worker
education and working class, and deepening facing worker education and
the working class, and deepening an understanding that:
* Worker education is not neutral,
* It has a specific orientation and must be controlled by workers,
* It instils thinking, collectivism and deconstruction of
dominant ideas,
* It helps the working class to create its own intellectuals, and
* It helps us to learn from history and shape a better
understanding of our future
Worker Education must also involve the youth and the youth and young
workers within your structures to become more involved in organizing
activities both in the workplaces and in the communities.
One is pleased to note that POPCRU's interest go beyond shop floor
matters. It is an acknowledgement that you are members of the community
before you are workers; and are political beings. It is with great
pleasure to note that POPCRU supports initiatives such as the Global
Week of Action for Human Rights to Water and Sanitation. In addition,
your protest against social ills such as xenophobia attacks is commendable.
In wishing you a successful Congress, I want to reiterate a few
fundamentals:
* POPCRU has a duty to defend fearlessly its motto, which is
"Justice for All". We are in democracy and all citizens have a
right to fairness and respect at all times, irrespective of
the circumstances and power relations they are subjected to,
* Over the past year, there have been disturbing cases of some
POPCRU Members being heard at the CCMA. Acts of humiliation,
psychological torture, false accusations and many other social
ills similar to those of the apartheid regime, which have led
to some members feeling that the degree of cruelty and
ill-treatment borders on the human rights violations of the
apartheid era. The perceived silences and avoidance on the
part of the organization is a serious cause for concern as
that might be an indication of signs of an organization which
is losing its grip and it's outlawed all come from an era
where we believed that an injury to one is an injury to all.
Remember, at the time we adopted the Constitution of the Republic of
South Africa, we committed ourselves to practices, policies and laws
which guarantee and embrace dignity for all. We cannot afford to lose
gains made. A related duty is to put anti-corruption measures in place.
POPCRU has to be vigilant, vocal and act speedily when acts of
corruption are suspected or confirmed. Defending and promoting
administrative justice will improve the integrity and ethics of members
and consequently the stature of the organization.
*I thank you!*
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