Masakh'iSizwe Bursary Awards Ceremony Speech 2007

Introduction

"It should be noted that skills are not just one of the constraints facing Asgisa (Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa), but it is a fatal constraint. That fact should be admitted with emphasis. We have to overcome the shortage of suitable skilled labour if our dreams for the economy are to realised; the task is huge." Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at launch of Jipsa, 30/11/26.

There is a cruel irony in the unfolding of our history as a democracy. The system that kept us in bondage as a nation ensured that even after the dawn of Uhuru, we would remain prisoners of the legacy of apartheid. The denial of opportunities to develop the talents of the majority sector of our society over more than three centuries has come back to haunt us all. The lack of skills to run a modern political economy is a fatal constraint that is holding back prosperity for the entire nation.

The scarcity of skills is one of the key dilemmas facing our transformation process. We have shied away from "admitting it with emphasis" as the Deputy President urges us to do. We have been in denial about the extent of this fatal constraint because of the uncomfortable issues associated with acknowledgement of the problem. I would like you to come with me into the depths of our psyche as a nation to confront the ghosts of our past that we have tended to ignore. Ghosts have a habit of haunting those who deny them until some way is found to call them by name and ritualize their being put to their final rest.

Ghosts Haunting our Democracy

I would like to address those ghosts that are at the heart of the dilemma we face in acknowledging and dealing decisively with the fatal constraints of scarcity of skills in our society. This scarcity is not just holding back greater prosperity, but also undermining the very pillars of our democracy. The ability of the people to govern themselves at the local, provincial and national levels is also undermined by scarcity of skills. Let us call the ghosts of our past by name and lay them to rest: racist stereotypes about black inferiority; systematic impoverishment and humiliation; inferior education and training to reinforce racist myths.

We should not under-estimate the psychological legacy of three centuries of colonial rule followed by apartheid. Frantz Fanon, writing about oppression under French rule in the 1950s and 60s, was one of the first to point out how one's historical and political context becomes a personal psychological experience. In 'Black Skin, White Masks', he showed how the colonial situation led to debilitating consequences for oppressed people's personalities and identities. He showed how the structures of colonial societies lead oppressed people to see the world, including themselves, through the eyes of the oppressor. Because such societies are always hierarchical, with the oppressors and their culture valued as good and the oppressed and their culture valued as bad, the oppressed end up adopting this view themselves, thus becoming alienated from their selves and their cultures. Fanon called this the 'scarring of the black pysche'. Some of the symptoms of this condition include a socially induced inferiority complex, self-hatred, low self-esteem, racial jealousy, suppressed aggression, anxiety and sometimes a defensive romanticization of indigenous culture.

In South Africa in the 1970s, Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement and leader of the South African Students' Organization (SASO), took up a similar theme stressing that psychological and cultural liberation of the black mind was a precondition for political freedom. He said that 'the most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed' and that black South Africans had to reclaim their minds.

The history of the struggle for freedom in our country has been a struggle to free ourselves not just physically but psychologically as well. But like any deep wound reinforced by brutal fresh injuries, it continues to fester. We can see evidence of self-hatred still in our society: crime, rape, child abuse, abuse of the elderly, corruption and disrespect of those who look like us. White people too still suffer from the scars of a superiority complex. Many white people still have trouble accepting that they have to live, collaborate and compete with black people as equals and fellow citizens. They still yearn for the crutches of job reservation and other forms of discrimination that amounted to the most successful affirmative action in history. Both black and white South Africans have work to do to lay the ghost of racist stereotyping to rest.

Systematic Land Dispossession and Migrant Labour System

The migrant labour system, which was the cornerstone of the exploitation of black people has undermined the social fabric of the majority population by destroying the base of stable family life. It had its origin in the need for cheap labour by the newly developing gold mines at the turn of the 20th Century. Cecil John Rhodes' Bill for Africa restricted freehold rights for Africans in order to force them into a labour pool for the mines. Families of the mineworkers were not wanted in Johannesburg as that would impose a financial burden on the mine owners - hence the start of a migrant labour system.

In 1903 the SA Native Affairs Commission, set up by Lord Milner to design a "uniform native policy", recommended that setting aside some land for Africans would be of benefit to the mining industry. "A man cannot go with his wife and children and his goods and chattels onto the labour market. He must have a dumping ground. Every rabbit has a warren where he can live and burrow and breed and every native must have a warren too."

With the implementation of the Land Act in 1913 this principle was applied by the newly formed Union of South Africa. This act and its devastating consequences prompted the now famous quote from Sol Plaatjie, General Secretary of the then South African Native National Congress (forerunner of the ANC): "Awaking on Friday morning, June 20th 1913, the South African native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth."

The legacy of Lord Milner's cavalier policy has come haunt us. People treated as rabbits housed in warrens and expected "to live and burrow and breed" tend to have problems rising to higher expectations. We now also know that those "rabbits" bred more that just children. They also created the conditions for the incubation and spread of HIV/AIDS that is consuming the very scarce skills we are desperately trying to develop and retain.

Inferior Education Reinforcing the Myth of Intellectual Inferiority

The 'Bantu Education' policy instituted by Hendrik Verwoerd in 1953, when he was Minister of Education, was designed to reinforce the racist myth of the inferiority of black people. According him, it was not necessary for Africans to learn mathematics at school, because they should 'only be equipped to meet the demands of economic life'. And since, under Apartheid they could not advance beyond the occupations of labourer, clerk, policeman and nurse, what was the use of 'teaching a Bantu child mathematics'? In 1959, the Extension of the University Education Act, established separate universities for 'non-whites'. These were the universities of Western Cape, Durban Westville, Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana and the North. None of these had engineering or medical faculties.

There were protests against these policies and laws, by black and white South Africans, but the final straw came in 1976 when the Apartheid state tried to impose Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in African schools. Black youth throughout the country rose up against this policy. On June 16th hundreds of young people were killed by police as they marched through the streets of Soweto.

None of you students gathered here today to receive your awards were even born in 1976 and most of you were still toddlers in the 1980s. But you should never forget the struggles of the brave women, men and youth against the pass laws and Bantu Education policies, because you wouldn't be here, sitting in this great hall on UCT campus if it wasn't for these brave warriors for freedom.

However the legacy of Bantu Education remains. The conflation of lack of knowledge and experience with an inferiority complex has frustrated our ability to deal with this legacy. Many black people remain in mortal fear of admitting lack of knowledge lest they be regarded as intellectually inferior. They have bought into the racist myth and live in denial of their weaknesses. This denial sadly reinforces the very risk they are trying to control. By not acknowledging lack of knowledge and understanding, they deny themselves the opportunity to address the problems they have, thus becoming failures.

White people too need to acknowledge their superiority complex that reinforces this vicious cycle of denial and failure. Many white people have difficulty accepting that black people can be more knowledgeable than themselves. Few have the capacity to appreciate that the different experiences black and white people bring to problem situations in whatever sphere of life could be a basis for greater creativity and innovation. South Africa has to make peace with harnessing the skills of white people as a return on the investments that many generations of tax-payers and sweat equity have contributed. Both black and white South Africans need to own up to the damaging legacy of racist myths and create a climate for mutual affirmation. Such mutual affirmation would unleash the creative juices in our society to enable us to compete in the globalizing world we find ourselves in.

Taking Advantage of the Globalizing Labour Market

The timing of our transition to democracy coincided with the acceleration of globalization characterised by the centrality of knowledge as the key to prosperity in a fiercely competitive global economy. Societies that are reaping the benefits of globalization are those with the well developed human and intellectual capital. South Africans need to position themselves to harness the rapid movement of ideas, innovation, people, goods, services and financial resources across borders driven by revolutionary changes in information and communication technologies. South Africa needs to overcome its legacy that has hobbled its ability to take full advantage of this global revolution.

We have the double blow of skills shortages and unemployment. Those who are unemployed tend to be unemployable. The restructuring of key sectors of the economy reduced demand for unskilled labour. According to a recent DBSA report, unemployment, as officially measured, has grown during this last decade or so from 15.9% to 30.4% despite the wonderful job done by our government to grow the economy. The experiences of some poor communities are even worse than the figures show. There are many poor rural and urban families in which successive generations of adults have no experience of employment. They have all but given up on the world of work.

The legacy of underdevelopment of the talents of the majority population is at the heart of the growing inequality in our society. Those who are skilled can sell their labour to the highest bidder whilst the unskilled go hungry. South Africa's Gini coefficient ranks amongst the highest in the world. (The Gini coefficient measures the income discrepancies between the rich and the poor.) South Africa's Gini coefficient stands at 59% while Nigeria's is 51%, India's is 38% and Japan and Sweden have a coefficient of 25%. In South Africa the top 10% of income earners receive 65% of the aggregate income, while the bottom 10% receive only 3% of the aggregate income.

Way Forward

Let me conclude on an optimistic note. We can lay the ghosts of the past to rest and look to a brighter future. The way forward is to move from denial to acknowledgement and be open to new ways of tackling our challenges.

Implications for Students

What does this mean for you in your studies? It means that you have to take ownership of not knowing and of not understanding things. The key is not to pretend that you do. If you do this you will never learn and you will have to keep pretending. You have to be prepared to admit your weaknesses and not be afraid or ashamed to ask dumb questions and ask for help. Don't fall into the trap of despising yourself for this. Rather, as Fanon and Biko have shown us, we must understand self-doubt to be a 'mark of oppression' that is still with us. In fact, it is only by acknowledging the impact the harsh consequences of colonisation, being brutally honest about our needs and levels of competence, that we will develop our full potential both as individuals and as a society.

Implications for Universities

The post-colonial context also poses challenges for our institutions of higher education. We should not be surprised that black and working class students often take longer to complete their degrees than do white or middle class students. Nor should we be surprised that black and working class students generally have higher failure rates than do their white middle class peers. For not only do these students battle with difficult material conditions, they also battle with educational and psychological disadvantages.

However, the last thing our universities should do in response to this situation is to lower our expectations of young people's capacity to learn. Lower expectations lead to the travesty of justice that results in graduating unemployable graduates. There are enough examples of successful models of intervention that show that people rise to the expectations set for them provided they get the support they need to succeed. We have to redesign curriculae, develop new ways of teaching and learning through sound academic development programmes and to explicitly teach in ways that build higher order cognitive skills.

Sound education requires a close relationship between the teacher and the learner so that they develop mutual understanding (this relationship could be between a tutor or mentor and a learner where the lecturer: student ratio is too great). Helping young people to develop trusting relationships with themselves, amongst peers, and with teachers is critical to developing the critical life and professional skills they need for success.

Sound education also takes time and costs money. To my mind there are no shortcuts, particularly in a post-colonial situation. It is not possible to overcome centuries of disadvantage overnight. Given this challenge and assuming that our economy continues its path of high growth, I would like to challenge the Department of Education to consider making a 4-year Bachelor's degree the norm and five years for a professional Bachelor's such as in Engineering. Well-prepared students should be able to be exempted from the first year after passing a competency test and still take only three years to complete. However, if the norm was four rather than three years, this would minimize the sense of failure amongst the majority of students and give them a chance to build a solid foundation for their future careers or further postgraduate study.

Implications for Government

The first democratic elections held in 1994 ushered in a period of immense expectations for public service delivery to the poor people of South Africa who are predominately black. The new government responded to these expectations by developing a highly lauded comprehensive suite of new policies and programs that had implications for all public sector departments and state-owned enterprises, at all levels of governance. It is fair to say that there was insufficient appreciation of the gap between the ideals of the policies and the capacity within government at all levels to implement them.

The government too has to own up to its lack of skills and capacity to develop and implement coherent policies in a co-ordinated manner. Bottlenecks in our governance process are exacerbating the skills shortage. Government also has to let go of the fear of acknowledging mistakes in its policy making and implementation processes. For example, when are we going to own up that the SETA's are an expensive failed model for skills development? We have little to show for a decade of investing 1% of payroll per year in this system. Owning up to this mistaken policy approach would enable us to go back to the apprenticeship system that is tried and tested the world over. We must make peace with the ghosts of the racist legacy of the past apprenticeship system that excluded Africans from the rank of artisan and reclaim the model for the good of the country. History will judge us harshly if we fail to act now.

The government also needs to acknowledge that the mistakes are being made in the implementation of Employment Equity that are exacerbating the problem of skills shortages. Affirmative Action if understood to be "regstellende aksie" is intended to give a leg up to those with potential to succeed who have been hobbled by apartheid. It does not mean putting an unskilled or inexperienced person in a position in which performance is impossible. Such actions that are driven by political patronage objectives undermine our society's ability to recruit and retain the best people to both the public and private sectors. Employment equity and properly applied affirmative action are essential to the transformation of our society.

Skills development and harnessing essential practical experience takes time. The Masakh' iSizwe Centre of Excellence is a significant provincial initiative in support of JIPSA. But as research commissioned by the Centre and conducted by the Engineering and Built Environment Faculty of the University of Cape Town, shows, the output of graduates in the engineering fields is not going to resolve the engineering skills shortage anticipated by the planned growth rate of 6% per annum. We need to recruit, retain and promote every skilled South African. We also need to complement our local skills with recruitment from the wider African continent to harness talents essential to sustain and grow our economy. We have to play to our comparative strengths as Africa's engine of growth and not act like victims of the fierce competition for scarce skills in this globalizing labour market.

Conclusion

There is plenty of potential in our country. It simply needs to be given a chance to be realised. One of the final year engineering students recently told MEC Fransman that two years ago he was averaging around 50% for his subjects. Last year he received a Masakh' iSizwe bursary, and with the kind of support that the Centre provides, his average grades shot up to 75%. His words to the MEC were: "You guys put faith in me and I felt that I had to respond by doing my best in my exams."

Let's put faith in young people, black & white, male & female who are talented yet financially disadvantaged. Let us affirm them by giving them the opportunity to become professionals - in the way that the Masakh' iSizwe Centre is doing. The challenge to the bursary holders gathered here today and to all young people in whom society puts its faith, is that you have an obligation to respond to our faith in you by doing your very best. Excel in both your studies and in your service to those who are still trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty that still characterizes the lives of many in our midst.