South Africa P.I.G.: SKILLS SHORTAGE

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South Africa Falling Into Decay

By <a href="http://sarahmaidofalbion.blogspot.com/search/label/Poetry.%20Mike%20Wilson">Mike Wilson</a> South Africa – the name conjures up visions of white colonialism, riches of diamonds and gold, beautiful cities, beautiful people, rich farmlands and technical innovation. A strong and vibrant country with a modern army and air force and an air of expectancy, handed down from Afrikaner father to son, that their land would be the greatest in the whole continent. <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6Gm7IzfqWos" width="640"></iframe> Well it does to me and this is what the country used to be like when I lived there 40 years ago. Johannesburg was a thriving metropolis of great buildings and the frenzied rush of people going about their affairs much like any other major city in the world. It was such a powerhouse of people, ideas and innovations and the strong Boer mentality over rode all. Today Johannesburg appears to be a run down shanty town with decrepit buildings, boarded up windows, filthy garbage riddled streets and squalor everywhere. What happened?   <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LW6lOdxqSUE" width="640"></iframe> The infamous pass laws were rescinded in the early 90’s and the black man took over the country. This utopia, this land of riches, this gemstone in the crown of the continent is now like so many other African nations, a struggling mix of different tribes coming to terms with life in the 21st century. Unfortunately for these black Africans, they have not been able to rise above tribal culture and are cursed with a background that has not reached the stage which would enable them to mentally grasp all the requirements that are needed to administer a complex and busy country. From being the underdog to being the dominant force today has created major schisms within the overall South African society. There is an ongoing payback mentality that encourages blacks to take from the whites in many different ways. In one way the houses of white people are regularly burgled and effects stolen. This is not done covertly and gangs of blacks regularly threaten households. In another way there is what is now called ‘Black Empowerment’ or BEE where blacks are given preference over whites for available jobs. This stupid practice gives the unskilled African peasant direct involvement in manning the infrastructure support that runs the country. As a consequence the major power supply company Eskom is unable to maintain its equipment as most of the trained skilled white staff are no longer employed. This has caused frequent power supply problems so that they had to rely on power shedding or in other words maintaining power to select parts of their industry rather than all consumers who need it. The current youth leader of the ANC, Julius Malema, keeps telling his followers to kill the Boer, one man one bullet. He has recently been found guilty of inciting racial hatred and fined 50,000 Rand for his troubles. Not that this has changed his tactic one iota and on a recent trip to Zimbabwe he went out of his way to repeat the phrase to all who would listen. Over 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since the ANC took over in a deliberate government policy to get whites to give up their land. From being a rich farming country under white rule South Africa now faces the prospect of importing food to feed the masses. Many whites claim that there is now a policy of genocide levelled against Boer farmers as a result of the ANC policy to grab land. This is the same process that started in Zimbabwe and will have the same result. On a recent trip to Zimbabwe there were talks between Mugabe and Malema on how to take over the remaining land still in the hands of white minorities. Now there is also talk of the mining industry which made SA very rich, being nationalised for the benefit of the black politicians. Law and order is a thing of the past now. There is no law of protection for whites and no laws for the blacks to abide by. Even Jacob Zuma the current leader of the ANC had a number of rape and corruption charges levelled against him by the then law and order anti- corruption team called the Scorpions. The ANC had an easy answer to all this, they simply disbanded the unit and the charges were dropped! In fact many of the black policemen supposedly upholding what little law and order is left, are themselves involved in burglarising, raping and armed robberies. The number of deaths of whites has been unrecorded although the litany of deaths occurs on a daily basis. Many people felt that with the advent of black rule and empowerment blacks and whites would be able to sit together and maintain a strong and prosperous country that would continue to be the envy of Sub Saharan Africa. Today the situation is so bad that the country is becoming another Zimbabwe and whites are powerless to stop it but can only look on in horror as their once great country crumbles about them. Due to the political process of giving to the black at the expense of the white there are now 450,000 white people living below the poverty line in shanty towns around the country. The majority of these people are from Afrikaans backgrounds who would normally be the underclass looking after fairly menial jobs, railway workers, cleaners etc. Since those jobs are now taken by blacks these unfortunate men, women and children have no recourse but to become part of the homeless generation, forgotten by more affluent whites as well as the black government. Even some soup kitchens that were set up by well minded individuals have been closed by bureaucrats who say that the whites must fend for themselves. It’s only the help from other whites that keeps these unfortunate people with some form of subsistence. White liberalism is to blame for the problems affecting South Africa and the fall of the white Governments pre 1994. The world saw a country with blacks being oppressed and demanded change for the betterment of the black population. Just like Rhodesia several years earlier. Today, who has benefited from these changes? Certainly not the blacks as the majority of them are now far worse off than ever they were under white rule. Again, the classic example is Zimbabwe under the megalomaniac Mugabe who has robbed his country blind whilst 98% of his followers still live in shantytowns without the benefits of modern civilisation and in abject poverty. Every one of the ruling politicians in South Africa lives a life of wealth and privilege, with the latest cars, biggest houses in the best suburbs etc., yet their followers are very much worse off than they were when the whites ruled the country. Apart from the trashing of cities which have become sleazy rubbish dumps the hospital services are almost non existent. It’s hard to accept that the country that pioneered the first heart transplant under Dr. Christian Barnard has now a run down medical service which once used to be the envy of the world. Everything about the country today smacks of total incompetence with inmates running the asylum for the rest of the inmates who just have no idea what is going on. <a href="http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/eugene-terreblanche-last-interview/">The murder of Eugene Terreblanche</a> may be just the last nail in the coffin of apathy that has affected the white liberals in this broken country. Indeed, apathy is probably the correct word to describe how the rest of the world views this former nation. It just seems that the power brokers amongst civilised nations are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the continent to implode before they go back in perhaps 40 years time or so, and pick up the pieces once more. Although by that time the Chinese will have probably got in first and blacks will have a far stronger, stricter and nastier overseer than the whites ever were.

South Africa Falling Into Decay

By Mike Wilson S outh Africa – the name conjures up visions of white colonialism, riches of diamonds and gold, beautiful cities, beautiful...

8:05 AM

An open letter to SA’s leadership...

<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgJC-o3pB6FRLZWGjm6E2XBs8nSffUZXMgoW3qXlE5vH6mzgthgR0y-FCcJCHNI3rAMnvnrcxN_z1IGJPlvK1d5ngibRQlQfEjWZ3HfD0J4OSRmAMa28S-M65RYtLUl_I7Emrqe0T7_le/s1600/anc-running-water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"><img border="0" height="378" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgJC-o3pB6FRLZWGjm6E2XBs8nSffUZXMgoW3qXlE5vH6mzgthgR0y-FCcJCHNI3rAMnvnrcxN_z1IGJPlvK1d5ngibRQlQfEjWZ3HfD0J4OSRmAMa28S-M65RYtLUl_I7Emrqe0T7_le/s640/anc-running-water.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> I will try to answer three questions; 1. Which way are we going? 2. Why? 3. Can we find a better way forward? Apart from racial policy, the institute I head has been documenting almost every aspect of South Africa since our foundation in 1929. It was inevitable then that when the ANC came to power in 1994, people asked us why South Africa should not become just another African disaster. I gave the usual list of advantages: a greater pool of skills, good infrastructure, a resilient private sector, our strong international economic linkages, a tradition of political pluralism, independent trade unions, a free press, and the vigour of our NGO sector. Since then the country has won golden opinions for macroeconomic policy management, reflected most recently in a heavily oversubscribed 30-year government bond. Despite this, we now learn almost daily of things that prompt the question once again: are we headed for the list of African failures. Recently an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred because a vital border fence with Mozambique had been neglected. Such problems are not isolated. We have slipped further down global tables as a destination for mining investment, police behaviour seems to be increasingly lawless, maternal and infant mortality rates are rising, millions of schoolchildren have started another year without textbooks, and the country's commercial capital is run by people who are out of their depth. We also have much higher rates of youth unemployment than countries to the north that recently chased away their rulers. Specific problems aside, among the main reasons we are going wrong are the following: •Affirmative action, which has denuded the State of both skills and institutional memory •Labour laws which protect unionised workers at the expense of the jobless •The cadre deployment policy, making loyalty to the party a key criterion for appointment to offices of state, and •Use of a model of government which makes elected institutions more accountable to party headquarters than to voters. Apart from policies and practices, the problems confronting us arise in part from assumptions and attitudes that affect the policy environment. These include: •limited understanding of what entrepreneurship requires •ideological hostility towards business •poor appreciation of how markets work or even antipathy towards them the belief that the pockets of our small number of major taxpayers are bottomless, and •too much faith in the efficacy of the State, leading to more and more regulation To these harmful factors must be added others: •corruption said by the deputy president to be "worse than anyone imagines" •lawlessness on the part of the State •a love of the grandiose, such as new bullet trains to Durban while we can't fix commuter rail services •the callousness towards ordinary people found all too often in service departments, and •no accountability even for preventable deaths of mothers and babies in public hospitals Then there are two key problems in the way policy is made. One is a habit of putting the cart before the horse - for example, embarking on ambitious education or health schemes without first fixing the basics such as training enough teachers and reversing the decline of public hospitals. The second is failure to apply the lessons of admitted mistakes. To its credit, the Government has admitted the failings of outcomes-based education but the ANC nevertheless plans to forge ahead with a national health system without considering the State's capacity constraints. These various aspects of our problems show that we are facing not just a few wrong-headed policies, but a challenge arising from the very nature of the Government and how it runs the State. Most of them have a direct impact on business. Part of that challenge arises from the fact that the ANC is not a normal political party. When a party with a two-thirds majority in Parliament is still committed to a "national democratic revolution," we must ask what it is that they wish to stage a revolution against. The economic system? Probably. Democracy? Perhaps. The rule of law? Very likely. The Constitution? Possibly. The Press pays little attention to the national democratic revolution, but the ANC is committed to it. This is one of the risks we face. Another is that tougher affirmative action requirements lead to a drain from the country of the most skilled segment of the population. Yet another is that public spending gets out of control as the ANC promises more free things to more people and puts more of them on to the public payroll, including now members of Umkhonto we Sizwe. We might also see a more rigid labour market, destructive interventions in agriculture, attenuation of property rights, damage to private health care, more malfeasance with mining licences, further corruption of the criminal justice system, and more local governments collapsing. It is ironical that we are expanding our social security commitments at the very moment when rich countries are having to cut back. It is also ironical that we are seeking to extend controls of the labour market while Europeans are trying to make their labour markets more flexible. A further piece of irony is that we are lengthening the arm of the State at the very time when China and India are continuing to liberalise economically, when parts of Africa are liberalising, and when even Cuba is showing signs of liberalisation. I have painted some dark clouds and the challenge now is to find the silver linings. Like a contrarian investor, we must look for signs of change that may not be obvious. One of these is the very fact that the Europeans, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Cubans have been here before and are having to reverse thrust. The international context in which we make policy has changed. Africa is also having to pay more attention to good governance than in the past. Already, some African countries are more attractive as mining destinations than we are. If we don't look out, we may find that our lead as the most important economy in Africa is shrinking. Despite the ANC's close historical ties with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it was unable in 1994 to follow a communist path because the USSR had in the meantime imploded. As welfare and dirigiste states elsewhere come under pressure, so will the ANC have to recognise that those role models are also unworkable. Despite this country's achievements since the advent of democracy in 1994, we are pursuing an unworkable political model. This model will have to be abandoned just as communism and apartheid had to be abandoned. How long this will take I do not know. The evolution of liberal democracy can be a slow and difficult business. But we need to find ways of helping the process along, while also trying to minimise the fearful human and economic damage that may be done in the interim. Among the reasons why apartheid disintegrated, two are relevant today. One is that its contradictions - notably the belief that you could run a modern economy without exploiting the skills of the whole population and granting them political rights - became unsustainable. The second reason was that, as the policy crumbled under the weight of critical scrutiny and its own contradictions, the ruling elite began to lose faith in it. Disillusionment spread from the Dutch reformed churches, to the Afrikaans Press, to academia, to business, to the ruling party, to the Cabinet, and not least to the Broederbond. This made Mr FW de Klerk's bold actions on 2nd February 1990 both necessary and possible. Parallels between the last 25 years of National Party rule and the first 15 years of ANC rule are becoming quite striking. The most obvious is on racial policy. The NP thought it could run a successful economy without fully exploiting the skills of the black population. The ANC thinks it can run a successful state without fully exploiting the skills of the white population. The evidence that this cannot be done is apparent all the time at all levels and in all branches of government. And it is beginning to cause instability at local level and hurt the party. Unfortunately, however, one of the parallels with our past is that failed policies are sometimes intensified rather than abandoned. This happened with the pass laws, for example, before PW Botha finally repealed them in 1986. It may also happen now with the Employment Equity Act, with its provisions for heavier fines to enforce racial quotas upon all employers - when the Government cannot even get Denel, or Eskom, or SAA, or Transnet to meet its racial targets at management or skilled levels. But there are other parallels. Just as the National Party steadily lost support among the intelligentsia, the same is happening with the ANC. Some black newspaper editors and journalists are at least as critical of the ANC as their white counterparts. In discussions with black business leaders over the past few months, my Institute has been struck how some of them have become very critical of the government - more so than most of their white counterparts. Moeletsi Mbeki probably speaks for more people than we think. Some of the squabbles in the ruling tripartite alliance are about spoils and patronage, but others are about policy. There are divisions over whether "decent" jobs should be placed above the need to generate more jobs. A growing minority is beginning to question the deployment policy. Others would like to have a professional civil service instead of one subject to ministerial whim. Racial policies are now also becoming a source of division, as we saw last week with Trevor Manuel's public attack on Jimmy Manyi. This spat is causing the ANC to tie itself into knots. When my Institute pointed out that forcing employers in the Western Cape to conform to the national racial breakdown would necessitate the (illegal) dismissal of thousands of coloured workers, President Jacob Zuma said companies would have flexibility to conform to national or regional demographics. This, however, is not what the proposed amendment to the Employment Equity Act says. Now the general secretary of the ANC, Mr Gwede Mantashe, has weighed in to the effect that national companies will have to use national demographics and provincially-based companies provincial demographics. This is the opposite of the flexibility of which Mr Zuma speaks. In November last year the minister of finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan, told an audience in London that economic empowerment policies designed to improve the standard of living of the black majority after 1994 had not worked. After all the employment equity, labour, and land reform legislation, not to mention hundreds of billions of Rands in BEE deals, this is quite an admission. In the short term it may lead to an intensification of failed policies, but in the long term these policies will have to be abandoned. The new constitution ushered in democracy in 1994. Ironically, however, the ANC's model of government - based on the Leninist idea of "democratic centralism" - in terms of which party headquarters dictates to local communities whom they must elect - is causing growing dissatisfaction at local level as the municipal election on 18th May approaches. Though many officials are hostile to white farmers, others recognise that no one else has the expertise to reverse the failures of land reform. Despite antipathy to the private sector, some of the ruling elite see a growing role for it in getting our ports working more efficiently, in electricity generation, in the rescue of local government, in AIDS testing, and in sorting out the problems of further education and training colleges. Indeed, as the failings of the State become more and more apparent, thanks in part to a critical media, more and more people in government will turn to the private sector for help. Even Cosatu wants private sector involvement to be mobilised when Postbank gets a banking licence. These inconsistencies will multiply as the ANC continues to pursue mutually contradictory policies. Promises of creating millions of new jobs are incompatible with key components of official policy, among them affirmative action, the deployment strategy, restrictions on immigration, tightening up the labour market, and adding to the regulatory burden on business. Eventually the contradictions will become unsustainable. Either some of these key policies will have to be jettisoned, or the quest for millions more jobs will fall by the wayside. In the meantime, what do we do? The first thing is to keep exposing the contradictions, so providing arguments for those in the ruling alliance who wish to see more realistic policies. Arguments for the liberalisation of our damaging labour laws need to be refined and intensified. The climate to do this is now more favourable than at any time since 1994. I suspect that affirmative action and cadre deployment policies have also done more damage to this country than most people care to admit. Can you really run a modern industrial state if you would rather leave posts in the public sector vacant than appoint whites to them? The major victims of this folly have been blacks rather than whites. The connection between these policies and lost growth and investment, high unemployment, shoddy RDP houses, inability to obtain social grants or medicines, preventable maternal and infant deaths, high crime rates, perilous roads, poisonous rivers, mismanagement of flooded dams, fraudulent passports and IDs, and a great many other problems needs to be repeatedly pointed out. The ANC's economic objectives simply cannot be achieved while everything is subordinate to racial ideology and the imperatives of the "national democratic revolution". This message needs to be hammered home without reservation or apology until a critical mass of opinion within the ruling alliance comes to recognise it. Secondly, it is necessary to stand firm in the defence of vital practices and institutions as they come under increasing threat, not only the rule of law but also academic freedom, independent civil society, a free Press, an independent legal profession and prosecution service, and independent courts. It is also necessary that organisations other than business come to the public defence of the free market system, private enterprise, and entrepreneurship. Not for a second should anyone in the ruling alliance be allowed to forget that the money the Government spends on education, health, housing, child support grants, and everything else - including its lengthening list of promises to its constituents - arises from taxes extracted from the private sector and private individuals. This is a point that needs much more emphasis than it gets. Business might wish to think of ways of getting the point across more strongly in public as well as to parliamentarians, civil servants, and other members of the ruling alliance. Thirdly, keep proposing alternatives to present policies. Business may not necessarily see a direct role for itself here, but it is nevertheless essential that alternatives be put forward. Here is my list of a dozen: 1. Cut back on the size of the State 2. Put inspectors back into schools 3. Systematically extend private education 4. Radically redesign land reform 5. Democratise Parliament 6. Liberalise the labour market 7. Make economic growth rather than redistribution the topmost priority 8. Change our welfare state into one that promotes entrepreneurship 9. Direct all state interventions at helping the poorest of the poor regardless of race 10. Replace the deployment system with a professional civil service 11. Increase our global competitiveness as a destination for foreign direct investment 12. Repeal all racially discriminatory laws Some of these may seem fanciful right now. However, given growing contradictions, policy failures, and paralysis in government, the climate is in fact auspicious. Detailed policy work on alternatives will of course be necessary. But the main point at this stage is to undertake a tenacious campaign to change ideas, preparing the soil, as it were, for new policies to be planted. This will be a long haul and a hard slog, so the sooner it is stepped up the better. The ruling party must be a prime target, both direct and indirect. Don't forget that ideas predate policies and that their power, for good or ill, should never be underestimated. It was after all, that great incendiary journalist and armchair revolutionary, Karl Marx, who produced some of the most powerful ideas in history. Despite their murderous consequences some of these ideas still have an iron grip in South Africa. They need constantly to be countered by the ideas that underpin liberal democracy. In particular, we need to keep on propagating the idea that the real alternative to apartheid is not another form of social engineering designed to promote an impossible equality of outcomes but an open society committed to equality before the law, political and economic freedom, corruption-free and proper democratic government, and rising living standards for all. Social and racial engineers failed in South Africa last time around, and they will fail this time too. That is cause not for despair but for eager anticipation. - John Kane-Berman - CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations.

An open letter to SA’s leadership...

I will try to answer three questions; 1. Which way are we going? 2. Why? 3. Can we find a better way forward? Apart from racial policy, the ...

8:26 AM

Just 8 Top Guns to fly our R27billion fighters

The South African government ordered 26 Gripen C/D fighter aircraft in 1999, courtesy of the taxpayer, remember? the multibillion-rand arms deal? Who could forget! The SAAF Gripen force, although still not formally operational, conducted a part of the air policing during the FIFA soccer World Cup. When the president of Brazil turned up to cheer on his side at the World Cup, SA was ready. A flight of South African Air Force Gripen jets buzzed the stadium. Showing off for the man! Pitching the Gripen with Football. No mean feat, we're really making strides hey. And it only keeps getting better... now the air force is in trouble, being unable to operate the Hawks or the Gripens properly. Why? You guessed it - insufficient funds! The situation is so bad that some aircraft, most importantly the Gripen Advanced Light Fighter Aircraft, may have to be mothballed. We now face the grim prospect of having an air force ‘without wings’. The Gripen mothballing threat follows reports that the air force’s Rooivalk attack helicopters have also been grounded, and that the 12 Rooivalks in 16 Squadron had been put in storage outside Bloemfontein and were not flying. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnEuD99KwvwF2LeOnt9u70B5EC6MHry40zFHu-Zzbu6n8qLCxZo2LWPc2ydxYg6ccPVxtZcBTXmn6eo_ovDwbWqc0DYMOoTGWYzZsnXr4G0bSfuIu3n9dnTzFNKyylzOSusO3X8_PsaYH/s1600/world-cup-gripens.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551753006775728482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnEuD99KwvwF2LeOnt9u70B5EC6MHry40zFHu-Zzbu6n8qLCxZo2LWPc2ydxYg6ccPVxtZcBTXmn6eo_ovDwbWqc0DYMOoTGWYzZsnXr4G0bSfuIu3n9dnTzFNKyylzOSusO3X8_PsaYH/s400/world-cup-gripens.png" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 297px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>THE SA Air Force (SAAF) has only eight fully trained fighter pilots and two navigators for its 26 Gripen fighter jets, which cost the country about R19.908 billion to buy. This was revealed yesterday by Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Freedom Front Plus defence spokesman Pieter Groenewald. (Pic) - South African Air Force Gripens fly past one of the World Cup stadiums. Last month the air force invoked “national security” to avoid telling MPs how many fully trained combat pilots it had to fly its multi-billion-rand Gripen fighter (R19.908 billion) and Hawk fighter-trainer aircraft (R7.2 billion) - making for a combined R27.01 billion. SAAF air capability planning director Brigadier-General Wiseman Mbambo told members of Parliament’s defence portfolio committee in a briefing that “inadequate funding” of the Hawk and Gripen combat systems had placed these “in the balance”, and the SAAF “has not been able to generate the required number of flying hours and re-provision the systems adequately”. This prompted at least two MPs to ask about the number of qualified combat pilots available for the Hawks and Gripens. Responding, Mbambo said: “It’s digging into the actual capability that we have.” He asked the then-committee chairman Nyami Booi to be excused from answering on grounds of national security, and Booi agreed. Mbambo had revealed that the SAAF’s budget allocation for 2009/10 had been R3.1bn, of which R1.6bn was for personnel and R1.5bn for operations. Groenewald said yesterday that it was “worrying that South Africa had 30 fighter pilots in 2005 and 20 fighter pilots in 2008. Now we only have eight”. “We however purchased 26 Gripen fighter jets, but 18 of these will be locked away in a store.”

Just 8 Top Guns to fly our R27billion fighters

The South African government ordered 26 Gripen C/D fighter aircraft in 1999 , courtesy of the taxpayer, remember? the multibillion-rand ar...

11:53 AM

Strengthening the weak by weakening the strong

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SLnl_4p-90ezFD-DV8p_MXzZ7JDI3JS5IVv0e0JLSHjiBz1tkF9MqVNwbEW6_qUqHXvsjsdvU12lXalecxgQdy8eFIm34eNw83bXDyBTovE6-GCLhDpVyyR1SBuvvzWaY8o7C8DVspA/s1600-h/rich_m16.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349536727933234082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SLnl_4p-90ezFD-DV8p_MXzZ7JDI3JS5IVv0e0JLSHjiBz1tkF9MqVNwbEW6_qUqHXvsjsdvU12lXalecxgQdy8eFIm34eNw83bXDyBTovE6-GCLhDpVyyR1SBuvvzWaY8o7C8DVspA/s320/rich_m16.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a> Marco MacFarlaneThis week has seen the leakage of an internal African National Congress (ANC) discussion document outlining plans for a proposed national health insurance (NHI) scheme. Unfortunately the plan in its current state looks set to destroy private healthcare, and consequently cause a flight of skills from these shores that will cause untold damage to the economy. The details of the plan are sketchy, and most stem from a speech given to the Hospital Association of South Africa (Hasa) by Mr Alex van den Heever, a health economist. Some of the proposals said to be contained in the discussion document include a 5% tax on earnings of those who are not members of medical aid schemes. For those who already have medical aid, some 85% of their contributions would go directly to a newly- created national health insurance body. Finally, all services that could be provided by the public sector could not be insured under a private medical aid. Thus if public hospitals offered cancer treatment, individuals would not be able to have health insurance that covered cancer, and essentially would have no choice but to obtain treatment through the public system. If the choice is between public health care for a chronic disease, or emigration, many South African professionals will answer with their feet. Without a private health care system, it is doubtful whether South Africa can sustain a professional class. The public health sector is floundering, however, and years of bad planning and poor management have taken their toll on a once well-regarded public health system. In 2006, some 32% of all professional nursing posts in the public sector were vacant. By 2008 the proportion of vacant nursing posts had risen to 40%. In the Free State and the Eastern Cape, more than 50% of all public sector nursing posts stand vacant. The story is the same for doctors, as vacancies in the public sector rose from 30% in 2006 to 35% in 2008. In the Northern Cape, 60% of public sector doctors’ positions stood vacant in 2008. The situation has become so dire that public sector health professionals have now engaged in protracted (and illegal) strike action. It is an indictment of the Government that it has allowed the public health system to deteriorate to the point that it has. In light of this, it seems as if the Government is trying to deflect criticism of its poor management of the health sector on to the well-run private health system. The reasoning seems to run as follows: the public sector has been managed to the brink of collapse. The private sector continues to provide top-quality medical care, so much so that South Africa even receives a significant amount of ‘medical tourism’, with foreigners coming to these shores for the high-quality care they can expect in our private hospitals. Despite the fact that taxpayers fund the public health system in its entirety, and despite the fact that they also fund the private sector out of their own pockets, the private sector represents some sort of ‘threat’ to the public sector. The ANC Government has a long history of attacks on the private sector. We need only look back at the last few years to see evidence of a sustained campaign to weaken or perhaps even eradicate private healthcare. Doctors have been subjected to the (unimplemented) ‘certificate of need’ fiasco, which sought to put obstacles in the way of private practitioners when opening their practice in an area of their choice. Next the minister seized control of drug pricing. Then the dispensing fees of pharmacists were controlled to the point that smaller pharmacies could no longer turn a profit. When a private hospital group wants to build a hospital it needs permission from the minister. Somehow the question, “Why has the public health system collapsed?” is being answered with, “Because the private sector is too expensive”. It seems to have escaped the Government’s notice that the money spent on private health care is in addition to the money that taxpayers already spend on the public system. If the private sector did not exist, the public health care system would have the same resources it does now, but would have to take care of 20% more people than it currently does. Thus the hostility towards private health care seems not only misguided, but also lacking in logic. Although the plan at this stage is merely a discussion document, the very fact that such ideas could be entertained at all should cause uproar. Little noise is being made about it, however. There have been some timid comments from the private hospital groups and medical aid schemes. The public has been very quiet about it, possibly since public participation and comment on the process has thus far not been sought. Unions like the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) have stepped in and said that the NHI will ensure that, ‘the poor access free healthcare at the point of delivery whether they are employed or not’, ignoring the fact that this is already the case. The debate about health has been hijacked so that it has become about costs of private care, instead of the ever worsening quality of the public health care system. Before such policies are considered in future, the ANC would do well to heed the words of Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

Strengthening the weak by weakening the strong

Marco MacFarlane This week has seen the leakage of an internal African National Congress (ANC) discussion document outlining plans for a pr...

8:40 AM

SA hospital shocker

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwiA_eCQbxyA4L1GvjgDQ0Y9-D2h82566O8ARbwjOTL2EgoIt3Uj5D4IkHd_2XfWEb-Z25myx04TYRZGNh6uUqO7aZTkO07o7MBMztK4yALlRamSBpgo5E_J2HVlO4DP0FZW_YPuR5D1Y/s1600-h/hospital-bara-chris-hani.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346891553912681746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwiA_eCQbxyA4L1GvjgDQ0Y9-D2h82566O8ARbwjOTL2EgoIt3Uj5D4IkHd_2XfWEb-Z25myx04TYRZGNh6uUqO7aZTkO07o7MBMztK4yALlRamSBpgo5E_J2HVlO4DP0FZW_YPuR5D1Y/s320/hospital-bara-chris-hani.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" /></a> No pay, no cure – can our hospitals be salvaged? No drill, no operation. This was the scene facing a patient at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital recently. A “frustrated” orthopaedic surgeon at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, walked out of a hip-replacement surgery after he was told that the “vital drill” he needed for the op, was being held by unpaid repairers, according to an article in the May edition of the South African Medical Journal (SAMJ). Crumbling at the core The 3000-bed academic hospital in Soweto also hit the headlines when a 16-year-old boy died of suspected meningitis. The Gauteng Department of Health issued an official apology to the boy’s mother, who told reporters that doctors at the hospital had misdiagnosed her son four times and left him untreated for three days, before he was diagnosed. There was apparently no bed for the schoolboy in the hospital's intensive care unit for the three days he was in hospital. Evidence points to a healthcare system that is crumbling at the core. Overworked doctors have staged countrywide protests to demand fair pay and better working conditions. The Business Day newspaper reported that bus drivers were now earning more than junior doctors, who have to complete six years of study. The Health Professions Council of SA has issued more than 20 000 certificates of good standing to medical practitioners since April 2003. The majority of these certificates are requested by doctors applying for positions overseas. And now emergency workers in Gauteng – who provide essential services such as fire fighting – have joined the protest, after a delay in the implementation of a wage agreement. Equipment suppliers owed millions The incident at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital is merely a symptom of a very sick system. And while healthcare workers have been trying to plug the holes for a very long time, it is clear that the ship is sinking. Several of the hospital’s departments are operating at sub-optimal levels due to malfunctioning equipment, unpaid bills and fed-up suppliers, who have had enough of empty promises. The SAMJ article reports that one equipment supply and repair company is owed R140 million, with Chris Hani Baragwanath’s tally accounting for R8 million, unpaid for 18 months. The list of issues at the world’s largest hospital is endless: <ul> <li>The hospital’s neurology department went for 3 weeks with only one working CT scanner resulting in the withdrawal of vital services. At one stage in March, things got so bad that the only remaining CT scanner was being used “around the clock”. </li> <li>During the same period, mammography and gastrointestinal screening were cancelled. </li> <li>Equipment suppliers are threatening to remove vital components from equipment unless they are paid. </li> <li>Zeiss refuses to fix broken microscopes, due to non-payment. </li> <li>General Electric, who have an MRI suite in the radiology department, have not been paid. </li> <li>Several hospital theatres have faulty or unusable air conditioning and filtrations units because the manufacturers refuse to replace or repair them until they are paid. </li> <li>Hospital laundries and kitchens are in chaos due to unpaid bills and clumsy administration. </li></ul>Doctors’ dilemma A senior doctor reports that the situation is the worst it’s ever been. “The only reason we don’t have clear-cut deaths is because we always make a plan,” he says in the SAMJ article. Many doctors are afraid their willingness to “make a plan” for the sake of their patients may also land them in hot water with the Medical and Dental Professions Board, who handle professional conduct enquiries. Entangled in this nasty web of maladministration and financial woes sits the susceptible patient, too poor to seek private care and wholly dependent on the health services provided by the state. “It’s really sad for the patients. They get played as pawns in a game of inefficiency,” says another healthcare provider in the article. Doctors interviewed say the problem is not a shortage of money, but rather a “management problem”. The hospital’s head of surgery, Professor Martin Smith, says he has been forced to “beg” suppliers to repair equipment. Equipment suppliers, too, are engaged in a delicate balancing act – at risk of losing large government tenders if they cause a fuss, or facing near bankruptcy if they continue this way. What's new DOC In the meantime President Jacob Zuma told Parliament in his first state of the nation address that improving South Africa's health care system was a top priority for his government. "We are seriously concerned about the deterioration of the quality of health care, aggravated by the steady increase in the burden of disease in the past decade and a half." Zuma said the administration would enter into public-private partnerships to "rehabilitate public hospitals" so that the state could move to implement a National Health Insurance scheme.<a class="newshead" href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1017534" target="_parent"> </a> The proposed introduction of a National Health Insurance scheme by government has already received much criticism, despite still being in its infancy. Some economists predict that taxpayers will need to fork out an additional 58% in tax each year to fund the NHI rollout, according to an article in What’s new DOC, a publication aimed at health practitioners. The <a href="http://www.health24.com/news/Health_care/1-918,51295.asp">Democratic Alliance </a>has also questioned the affordability of the proposed scheme, labelling it as “expensive and complex”. The party has called for the NHI system to be placed on hold, while the current system is made to work more efficiently. Doctors at the coalface seem to agree that operational inefficiencies in the functioning of the healthcare system, rather than a shortage of cash, are responsible for the crisis. It is hard to believe that healthcare practitioners will be prepared to dig deep, yet again, and try to plug the holes of another untimely, ill-conceived idea from an incoming administration.Related - <a class="newshead" href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1017534" target="_parent">Equal access to ALL hospitals </a> <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1013162">Secret health plan raises temperatures</a> <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/Business/BusinessTimes/Article1.aspx?id=1013161">State counts on private health facilities</a> <a href="http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/audio/2009/06/the-national-health-insurance-explained/">Audio: The national health insurance </a>

SA hospital shocker

No pay, no cure – can our hospitals be salvaged? No drill, no operation. This was the scene facing a patient at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hos...

11:43 AM

Affirmative Action is Ruthless Looting

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0LcsLa95JoWVMvQa5IiMVM8GFBQxywV2HLRiuYHOmFe0djxB52CJCHTOytm2PYkrCIAcQrTSy9-MbRsHQTQxlbHw0SYkfbAXF6rJxpIlwafK1tviYX1ppL5nWobT1ONvdGu0EFILcLKr/s1600-h/welfare_motivator.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323826001099060146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0LcsLa95JoWVMvQa5IiMVM8GFBQxywV2HLRiuYHOmFe0djxB52CJCHTOytm2PYkrCIAcQrTSy9-MbRsHQTQxlbHw0SYkfbAXF6rJxpIlwafK1tviYX1ppL5nWobT1ONvdGu0EFILcLKr/s400/welfare_motivator.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." The late Dr. Adrian Rogers Mamphela Ramphele’s attempt to give the so-called employment equity system some credibility should be deemed a failure. The damage has already been done and the civil service, public healthcare, the railways, ports and road infrastructure bear testimony to the insidious effects of racial preference on South Africa. The current system of race preferences in favour of blacks cannot be reformed — it can only be abolished. Employment equity is but an Orwellian euphemism denying whites employment, as well as educational and business opportunities, on the grounds of race. The ANC may be more subtle than Zanu-PF, but the ultimate goal is the same — getting rid of whites altogether. Most whites, English and Afrikaans, have seen the writing on the wall. They have either left the country or have become self-employed, waging a constant struggle for survival in small businesses run from homes and garages without pension schemes, medical aid or access to capital, which is largely reserved for blacks. According to economist Mike Schussler, 50% of all white males are self-employed. It is a staggering statistic. Not only are whites made to feel distinctly unwelcome at government departments, but banks and other private institutions have also transformed to the extent that one hardly sees a white face behind a counter. In fact, we would need an affirmative action policy for whites just to persuade large corporations to employ them at all, especially young ones, given the anti-white ethos that oozes from the very pores of this amazingly violent, corrupt society. Whites lacking in entrepreneurial and technical skills have been condemned to poverty and despair, despite being literate and hard-working. On the other hand, one-third of all municipal councillors controlling budgets in the billions are illiterate. To create wealth, one needs skills. To loot the wealth of others does not require any skill, except being ruthless and arrogant. The race-proud Africans of Zimbabwe and South Africa have shown themselves to possess an abundant capacity for both. ~ Dan Roodt ~ <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=837966" target="_blank">Original article</a> (Posted on September 9, 2008)

Affirmative Action is Ruthless Looting

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, an...

8:24 AM

South Africa's Airports licence at risk in the Cape

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgoypwCXhUrtJO2bhUvsrz8JfTz4aIXfLHsBPKhQfZy5KBhJRgw0MyJtNEnL2uPnCl4n8cBuZjno37-Bo8asGpRp_iLd3XvO9RBwwTYKIulb7WBwpgMirWYZyOCzAtuWXHHF2imzluC4/s1600-h/acsa-scare.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313709697811767074" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgoypwCXhUrtJO2bhUvsrz8JfTz4aIXfLHsBPKhQfZy5KBhJRgw0MyJtNEnL2uPnCl4n8cBuZjno37-Bo8asGpRp_iLd3XvO9RBwwTYKIulb7WBwpgMirWYZyOCzAtuWXHHF2imzluC4/s400/acsa-scare.bmp" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" /></a>The scarcity of properly trained firefighters at Cape Town International Airport "poses a risk" and "is serious enough to threaten" the airport's operating licence. Poorly trained airport firefighters do not know how to use equipment, do not know their assigned duties on the fire engines and lack the experience to drive these. Another internal airport document has said that two-thirds of the firefighters do not have enough training. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) plans to investigate the training of the airport's firefighters during its next audit. The airport fire service is privately owned and run by the Airports Company of SA (Acsa). According to the report by an internal auditor, Aldrich Blignaut, who has since been hired as the fire service's emergency response planner, firefighters "lacked knowledge" of how to operate fire tenders and equipment. "This poses a risk (because) in real (emergencies) the crew will need to operate at a much quicker pace than during the audit and they will then need to be sure of what they are doing and which type of equipment to use," Blignaut said. "New recruits are being used as operational staff too soon after their appointment and without the proper training." "The entire issue of training is serious enough to threaten our operating licence, as the number of unskilled and inexperienced staff far outweighs the skilled and experienced staff available," said Wilson. In another section of the report, on the handling of hoses, Blignaut said "the lack of ability to roll out hoses on the fire ground" raised questions about the readiness of recruits deployed as operational staff. Under the heading "Lack of knowledge of equipment on vehicles and location", Blignaut said it was worrying to find out that some firefighters could not "identify and differentiate between a two-stroke and a four-stroke machine". During the audit, Blignaut also noted that some firefighters did not know their assigned duties on fire engines, such as pulling hoses or switching on pumps, and could not identify the airport's rendezvous points for emergency services. Wilson said firefighters should have received airport emergency plan training in January, and another four times this year. On the question of driving vehicles, Blignaut said although firefighters obtained a heavy duty driver's licence through a driving school, this did not "give them enough experience" in operating the vehicles during emergencies. Wilson said 30 of the 46 firefighter drivers had less than a year's driving experience and many were "in dire need" of training, but they were not allowed to do "unnecessary driving" of fire tenders as this would affect the fuel budget. The CAA carries out audits at every airport in the country each year. An airport would lose its operating licence if the audit were not carried out or if it failed it. Last year Cape Town International Airport passed its audit. The next one is scheduled for July. See also - <a href="http://southafrica-pig.blogspot.com/2009/03/85-of-firefighters-hired-by-airports.html">Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) airport safety shock</a>

South Africa's Airports licence at risk in the Cape

The scarcity of properly trained firefighters at Cape Town International Airport "poses a risk" and "is serious enough to thr...

1:52 AM

Airports Co South Africa (Acsa) Airport Safety Shock

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikghLveGCVFLsIOzHpCLEjQ6BT3qdeWppIImSdCnT-VpMF51x965QF2cQ1zYYobeQF-LOGnYNeq4t3Cq-0tY3uBtFvoVln5M4auOck_yUf-Ysbn7FUFZx93dtxZHXfvBXp440b5YT7plQ/s1600-h/ACSA-disembark.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311723447965633922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikghLveGCVFLsIOzHpCLEjQ6BT3qdeWppIImSdCnT-VpMF51x965QF2cQ1zYYobeQF-LOGnYNeq4t3Cq-0tY3uBtFvoVln5M4auOck_yUf-Ysbn7FUFZx93dtxZHXfvBXp440b5YT7plQ/s400/ACSA-disembark.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 319px" /></a>Two-thirds of the 62 firefighters stationed at Cape Town International Airport are "poorly trained" and have little or no general firefighting experience. Only 15 percent are fully experienced and have a professional aviation qualification. Training for an aviation qualification includes learning how to open and close an aircraft's doors and how to approach an aircraft when there is a crisis. Should a major emergency arise at the airport, most of the firefighters may not have the skills to respond appropriately. The airport fire service is privately owned and run by the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa). It is not affiliated to the city or the province's fire services. Some of the firefighters have themselves said they do not feel they have had sufficient training. The airport's chief fire officer has resigned, apparently because of the lack of training provided for his staff. But Acsa is adamant it has "sufficiently qualified staff able to respond to any aviation incident". According to an internal document that lists the skills levels of firefighters employed at Cape Town International Airport and which is in the possession of the Cape Times, 41 of the 62 have insufficient experience or aviation qualifications. Most of the 41 have worked at the airport for three years or less and were not firefighters before taking this appointment. According to the document, 12 of the 62 airport firefighters have an average amount of experience. While some have an internal aviation qualification, others are experienced enough to go for aviation training. Only nine of the firefighters have a professional aviation qualification and are experienced in this field. Most of the nine have worked at the airport for more than 20 years. Eleven posts are vacant and are being filled. A well-placed employee who, for fear of reprisals asked not to be named, said Acsa had appointed inexperienced people "off the street" as firefighters as this was cheaper than employing people with experience. He said that to be hired by the airport, one needed to have passed matric, to have a code eight driver's licence and to have completed an internal three-week basic firefighting course. Hiring inexperienced firefighters was problematic because being stationed at the airport meant they did not have to respond to many emergencies and so did not gain much experience, he said. Another source said the three-week basic course was "nowhere close to that for a professional fire service". "The firefighters are poorly trained and they don't have experience," he said. "Some of them haven't been trained to respond to a structural fire. "Even if they do get further training, it leaves them without experience." The source said Acsa had also "totally ignored" two phases a firefighter needed to complete to gain "a proper" aviation qualification. A firefighter should complete a three-month course first, then a month-long programme before he or she could specialise by completing an aviation course. The source said Acsa was skipping the first two courses and sending firefighters for an internal aviation course. This meant that those who gained an internal aviation qualification "completely missed out on the basics". The firefighters' duties included responding to medical emergencies and carrying out airfield inspections and runway checks. The source said only the nine experienced members knew how to carry out inspections and checks correctly, and they had to "pick up the weight" of the 41 inexperienced firefighters. He said the fire chief, Brandon Wilson, had resigned as he was unable to continue working in such conditions. See report here - <a href="http://southafrica-pig.blogspot.com/2009/03/cape-airports-licence-at-risk.html">Cape Airport's licence at risk</a>

Airports Co South Africa (Acsa) Airport Safety Shock

Two-thirds of the 62 firefighters stationed at Cape Town International Airport are "poorly trained" and have little or no general ...

1:05 PM

Fleeing South Africa — exodus reaching crisis levels

Fourteen years after apartheid, why are the best and the brightest leaving Africa's most successful state? <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305209396109200690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim1jOsHMtvTW1QO9K7WFciL681wE4ZGQuM7Huw6pMhRXsodF4InGp3eGcL_zVIAhmkfWCShkNENLL3cDAcj8_ghQzSONwif1A5_CDxshb2cD9_12JtFxItgrRFnTfHqRwaPqwzs4flmz8/s400/south-africa-exodus.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 239px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /> A razor-wire fence in Yeoville, South Africa, a common sight due to an increasing crime rate No one should be surprised to read that <a class="related" href="http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=Zimbabwe">Zimbabwe</a> has suffered massive emigration in recent years, especially among its white minority. But much less expected is the fact that next-door <a class="related" href="http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=South+Africa">South Africa</a>, the continent's wealthiest and most developed country, is suffering a brain drain of its own. The South African government doesn't keep reliable emigration statistics. But even as the global financial crisis has caused emigration from most other countries to slow, a number of recent independent studies show that mass departures from South Africa are ongoing and are sapping the nation of its skilled and best-educated young citizens. The most dramatic figures can be found among South African whites, who are leaving at a pace consistent with the advent of "widespread disease, mass natural disasters or large-scale civil conflict," according to a report by the South African Institute on Race Relations. Some 800,000 out of a total white population of 4 million have left since 1995, by one count. But they're hardly alone. Blacks, coloreds (as people of mixed race are known in South Africa) and Indians are also expressing the desire to leave. In the last 12 years, the number of blacks graduating in South Africa with advanced degrees has grown from 361,000 to 1.4 million a year. But in that time the number of those expressing high hopes to emigrate has doubled. This wasn't supposed to happen. In many ways, the new South Africa has lived up to its promise of racial harmony and equitable development; its enlightened Constitution, progressive economic policies, and wealth of human and natural resources have all kept it relatively stable since apartheid was swept away in 1994. But that stability could be jeopardized if its human capital keeps leaving at the current rate. South Africa has undergone massive swings in emigration for decades, including since the end of white rule. The shifts can be linked to changes in political stability and economic opportunity, as well as less worrisome factors like simple wanderlust. And all these same factors are at work now, but they've been accentuated by a violent crime epidemic, serious political upheaval and economic globalization. A poll conducted last May among 600 people of different races, ages and genders found that 20 percent were planning to leave the country. "We are now seeing a new tipping point for an exodus," warned another report from Future Fact, a polling agency. "But this time [it's] across-the-board in terms of race." The primary driver for emigration among all groups, but especially whites, who still retain the majority of South Africa's wealth, is fear of crime. With more than 50 killings a day, South Africa has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world. The same goes for rape—ranking the country alongside conflict zones such as Sierra Leone, Colombia and Afghanistan. Future Fact polling indicates that more than 95 percent of those eager to leave South Africa rate violent crime as the single most important factor affecting their thinking. Lynette Chen, the ethnic-Chinese CEO of Nepad Business Group, is the only member of her family left in South Africa. Her parents departed in 2002 after being carjacked—twice. Her brother, also a victim of crime, followed suit shortly thereafter. "They're always getting homesick," she says. "But they won't come back unless the crime is reduced." Another largely unnoticed problem is the growing number of attacks on South Africa's white farmers. As in neighboring Zimbabwe, some of the attacks appear to be racially motivated. Others seem simply opportunistic, but the result is that white farmers' numbers continue to decrease, leading to fears that despite the government's good intentions, a Zimbabwe-style crisis—where the flight of skilled farmers led to an agricultural collapse—is possible here too. Then there's the problem of affirmative action, which many whites feel limits their opportunities for advancement and which keeps many émigrés from returning. "You can attract people home, but there are still the same concerns when they get here," Chen says. "Crime and lack of job opportunities if you're not the right color." Still another factor driving out citizens of all races is the country's political crisis. National elections are due in April, and the likely next president, Jacob Zuma, faces a battery of serious corruption charges and accusations of autocratic behavior. Zuma's ruling ANC party has been split by a rebellion of former loyalists, and increasing numbers of South Africans express concern with the health of their young democracy. The leadership vacuum has also distracted attention from pressing national concerns like energy. Last spring the country was engulfed in rolling "brownouts" as the electric grid ground to a halt because of mismanagement. For all these reasons, even the global economic slowdown hasn't been enough to keep qualified South Africans at home. Of the country's 25,000 registered accountants, fully a quarter now live overseas. Engineers, doctors, nurses and accountants are all in increasingly short supply. In February, Health Minister Barbara Hogan said South Africa's doctors are "constantly being poached" by places like Canada, Australia and the United States—among the most popular destinations for wealthy white émigrés. Banks and investment companies are forced to look for talent overseas, and Eskom, the disgraced national electricity provider, has recently begun scrambling to attract electrical engineers back home, but with little success. The long-term effects of this exodus are already being felt in other critical ways. The vast majority of South Africa's emigrants are also the country's best and brightest. Compounding the problem is the fact that while South Africa has lenient policies toward admitting refugees from elsewhere in Africa, the import of skilled labor is still quite onerous—meaning that as more and more trained workers leave, there are fewer and fewer replacements. Pretoria needs new policies to balance these flows, says Debbie Milner of Future Fact. "Africa has a huge amount of skilled people in it, and many other African countries have better education systems than our own." To succeed, post-racial South Africa also needs to move nonwhite professionals quickly up the ranks in all sectors of its economy, and the government's black-empowerment plan centers on ensuring that more of its citizens get advanced degrees. But as growing numbers of these graduates express a desire to follow their white colleagues out the door, the prospects for continued economic empowerment are dimming. "We were dumbfounded by the incredibly high numbers of people who claim they're seriously considering leaving South Africa," Milner says. While unemployment for whites has increased more than 100 percent since the end of apartheid, it remains as low as an average European country, between 7 percent and 8 percent. Joblessness among blacks, on the other hand, is hovering at around 50 percent. "If the qualified nonwhites are leaving too, that is pretty dire for black economic empowerment," Milner says. To be fair, not all the signs point in one direction. The global economic downturn has led to anecdotal reports of South Africans returning from the once hot economies of Europe and North America. Others who were recently on the verge of leaving have now decided to stay put, in some cases when their offers were rescinded at the last moment. "I don't dispute that people have left—I just dispute the high figures," says Martine Schaffer of the Homecoming Revolution, an NGO that helps returnees with logistical difficulties and to get reacquainted with a country that may have changed significantly in their absence. "Nothing indicates that they've all emigrated permanently." That may be true. But if Pretoria hopes to drive development, it needs to act fast to keep the South African exodus from gaining momentum. For starters, the new president should make fighting crime a priority. South Africa's affirmative-action program should also be re-examined and tweaked, perhaps to emphasize economic status rather than race. Whites between the ages of 20 and 35—currently the group most susceptible to emigration—should be allowed to compete more forcefully for jobs. Such measures won't stop emigration entirely, certainly not while the country's leadership crisis continues. But South Africa faces no great new natural disaster or a war. Its vital statistics need to begin to reflect that. By <a href="http://services.newsweek.com/search.aspx?q=Author:^" sortdirection="descending&sortField=pubdatetime&offset=0&pageSize=10'">Scott Johnson</a> NEWSWEEK issue dated Feb 23, 2009

Fleeing South Africa — exodus reaching crisis levels

Fourteen years after apartheid, why are the best and the brightest leaving Africa's most successful state? A razor-wire fence in Yeovil...

8:17 AM

Building collapses caused by lack of skills

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Mg4PTsI-rcM2ENppb5tZa1uA7iTmxJcV3cy8S-JqT_raO1nqzOTrqjsDjRhDwwRK6ujwp1thyJSjlBq670qv8S1swgf7Hr2R8HVGG0GkK2olEzUv6Gwxe9CbzmulbQxBzZCoBArvOCU/s1600-h/collapsemain.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259743070125834178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Mg4PTsI-rcM2ENppb5tZa1uA7iTmxJcV3cy8S-JqT_raO1nqzOTrqjsDjRhDwwRK6ujwp1thyJSjlBq670qv8S1swgf7Hr2R8HVGG0GkK2olEzUv6Gwxe9CbzmulbQxBzZCoBArvOCU/s400/collapsemain.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>Unrealistic costs, pressure to complete building quickly, cutting corners and lack of both construction and management skills have contributed to a spate of construction site collapses, according to Colin de Kock, executive director of the Master Builders' Association. In the latest accident, in Little Falls, Roodepoort, where two workers were killed and 15 injured, a little-known company, Dunehill Investments, is the contractor. The company is listed on the National Homebuilders Registration Council website as a registered builder. "Although I am not pointing fingers, no one appears to have heard of this company. We tried to send someone to investigate, but police would not allow us on site," De Kock said. Making it clear he was not speaking specifically about last week's collapse, he said "there is a lack of skills in the industry these days". Managers had to know basic things like curing times for cement. Also, builders' clients pushed for time, and tenders came in at lower prices. "Designs and drawings are also not perfect. Big developments are under pressure. Cumulatively, this is leading to these accidents," De Kock said, adding that the construction industry, in general, did not have a good record for adhering to health and safety regulations. "What builders and developers do not understand is that safe sites are productive sites. It costs a bit more money, but having a neat, clean, safe site sees production improving overnight," De Kock said. City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the Little Falls office block was not an illegal development, "in the sense that there were approved building plans". "The structural integrity of the building is, however, the responsibility of a professional engineer, who was appointed by the developer in February. In terms of the National Building Regulations, all aspects of construction are under the supervision and control of an engineer." The building control directorate had issued a notice to stop all work on the site, Modingoane added. "The owner has been instructed to appoint a professional person to investigate the cause of the structural failure, and further building is not permitted until the report has been provided. The minister of labour has visited the site, and the department of labour may also be involved in investigations in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act." Sapa reported on Sunday that the labour department has been quoted by the SABC as saying the building hadn't registered with the department. "What we have determined up until now is that the contractor did not inform the department that construction was taking place there," said labour department investigator Kenny Fick. This means health and safety checks at the site would not have been done by the department. On Friday, The Star quoted workers at the site as saying "inspectors" had checked the building the day prior to the collapse and had told the workers to continue with the construction - but these "inspectors" were not from the department. Fick said the department would investigate the cause of the accident in the next few days. Modingoane pointed out that only a small number of companies develop without building plans, but in all instances, these were reported and dealt with. "A major challenge in terms of illegal development is not with large developments, but the small additions, alterations and developments on residential properties, and these are dealt with on an ongoing basis," he said.

Building collapses caused by lack of skills

Unrealistic costs, pressure to complete building quickly, cutting corners and lack of both construction and management skills have contribut...

11:34 AM

Eskom Power Crisis: lack of skills another factor

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREnnjGwm41OuiV0cv5lRIFg8_CxXfRgzdvlrQBxjKLTpKm95Wu7joPXeRvgt6rrY9nlOOeviWj_L1pcDMKy3ackwWX0OWGMFS6j7kF4FOP5ovBZazwjnnm2diZaOnzurTnDF0RI2BG8g/s1600-h/school_sex.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239308573148546946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjREnnjGwm41OuiV0cv5lRIFg8_CxXfRgzdvlrQBxjKLTpKm95Wu7joPXeRvgt6rrY9nlOOeviWj_L1pcDMKy3ackwWX0OWGMFS6j7kF4FOP5ovBZazwjnnm2diZaOnzurTnDF0RI2BG8g/s400/school_sex.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> The electricity industry has been hit by a "chronic" shortage of engineers, the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. "Eskom's current status doesn't only involve power generation issues and the failure of government to recognise the power problem - we must also take into account that the engineering skills shortage has contributed to the power crisis," said the institute's Ian McKechnie. He was addressing a conference entitled "A Constructive Response to the Power Crisis from the Mining and Metallurgical Industry". One of the factors that had to be considered was apartheid-era education, where skills were disproportionately developed in the population. There was also a world-wide demand for engineers. Another concern was the "deficiencies in the present school system" and the low number of pupils with maths and science marks high enough to study engineering. He added that the USA produced 380 engineers per million people, China 225, India 95 and South Africa only 45. Furthermore, McKechnie said, traditional artisan training had collapsed and the Setas were not making a sufficient contribution. Levels of artisan training had dropped from around 30 000 registered artisan apprentices in 1975 to an estimated 3 000 in 2006 - a drop of ten times. McKechnie said that in order to produce more engineers, technologists and technicians, it was necessary to "feed more students into the tertiary education system". The availability of lecturers and tutors however remained a significant challenge. In the 2007 matric results, only 25 415 students passed higher grade mathematics and 28 122 passed higher grade science. "Of this number, only 8 000 got a C aggregate or higher in higher grade maths - and this was the typical entry level for a university engineering degree, McKechnie said. Restructuring the electricity distribution industry to deal with the shortage was not the answer, he said. "The current trend of outsourcing within the electricity distribution sector, whilst possibly being an effective short-term solution, does little to empower the network owner and enhances the risks of unreliability and failure in the longer term." - Sapa

Eskom Power Crisis: lack of skills another factor

The electricity industry has been hit by a "chronic" shortage of engineers, the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers said in Johan...

1:22 PM

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