Opening remarks by Deputy President Paul Mashatile during the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) meeting, at Sol Plaatje University South Campus, Kimberley

Dr. Zamani Saul, Premier of the Northern Cape Province,
Professor Andrew Crouch, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Sol Plaatje University,
Mr. Percy Sago, Principal of the Northern Cape Rural TVET College,
Dr CF Barnes, Principal of the Northern Cape Urban TVET College,
Dr. Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
MECs,
Deputy Chairpersons,
Members of the Human Resource Development Council,
Directors General and other senior government officials,
Ladies and gentlemen.
 
We extend a warm welcome to all of you as we gather here today for this Human Resource Development Council meeting. It is an honour to be in the presence of such distinguished individuals who are dedicated to the development and advancement of our nation's human resources.
 
It is also a privilege to be here at this university, Sol Plaatje, one of only two built after 1994. This is the culmination of our long-term commitment to investing in skills revolution with the building to build a productive and globally competitive society. As well as the idea which are discussing that of building academic cities or precincts around the country.
 
We further congratulate the province on the successful relaunch of the provincial Human Resource Council earlier this week and extend a cordial welcome to the provincial Human Resource Council executive members present here today.
 
It is encouraging that Sol Plaatje University, the Northern Cape Rural TVET College, and the Northern Cape Urban TVET College offer programmes and innovations in construction and bricklaying, solar energy, data science, and water solutions to meet the needs of current and future communities.
 
We look forward to viewing some of these and interacting with students and lecturers during the walk-about in the exhibition area later today.
 
This meeting is a continuation of and represents progress from the May 19 meeting which took place in Umgugundlovu, KwaZulu Natal Province. On that occasion, we signed two social compacts, the first to strengthen efforts towards the transformation of our economy and society. The second aims to focus our energies on creating the skills necessary to get the country to this important goal.
 
These compacts are important because they represent our collective commitment to addressing the skills challenge in our country, to grow the economy and to construct an inclusive society. Having established consensus, we must move with the necessary speed to improve on the discipline of execution with the aim to strengthen existing programmes or, as the case may be, to develop appropriate action plans.
 
As all of us are aware, the Human Resource Development Strategy Towards 2030 has identified five priority areas that remain relevant and in need of accelerated implementation. These are:
 
• Foundation education with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, language and life orientation skills;
• TVET and the rest of the college system;
• Higher education and training, research, innovation and development;
• Skills for a transformed society and the economy using the workplace as a platform, and;
• Developmental/capable state.
 
I do not mean to belabour a rather obvious point, but all of these priorities are interrelated and must be relentlessly pursued. Consider the link between foundation education, higher education and training, research and innovation. We cannot have economic development without higher education and training, research, innovation and development.
 
Most crucially, you cannot achieve any of these outcomes without quality primary education with a strong emphasis on mathematics and science education. This obliges us to pose questions about how we are faring with respect to the implementation or otherwise of the many decisions we have taken as a government and country to improve the lives of the people. These include the implementation or otherwise of critical policies such as the National Development Plan and the Human Resource Development Strategy.
 
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) reports that 3.4 million patents, trademarks and industrial designs were registered throughout the world in 2021. Of these, China accounted for 1,585,663 applications, followed by the United States at 591,473, Japan with 289,200, the Republic of Korea at 237,998, European Patent Organisation member states at 188,778, India at 61,573 and Germany at 58,569. A year before, in 2020, South Africa had registered 542 patent applications.
 
These statistics tell you an intricate and complex story, which cannot be done justice today. Suffice it to say that:
 
• there is a relationship between patents, trademarks and industrial designs and the quality of a country’s education system, particularly its mathematics and science teaching, and;
• there is a relationship between the number of patents trademarks and industrial designs and a country’s economic prospects.
Furthermore, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on South Africa for the year 2022 further identifies five strategic areas in need of attention and focus. These are:
 
• public sector investment in education, skills development, and youth participation in the economy;
• the need to develop one-stop job services to consolidate existing tools and services;
• youth entrepreneurship in technology-based and green industries;
• building on shifting gender norms to empower women economically, and;
• strengthening and expanding the National Youth Service to bridge the school-to-work gap.
 
The five areas identified by the UNDP also require the urgent attention of the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa (HRDC).
 
Our skills development efforts are and must be national in outlook and in every other material respect. We must train for the country – not a municipality, province, or specific sector of the economy. In some and significant respects, we should endeavour to train our people for service to humanity as a whole.
 
That said, specific localities will have particular potential which should facilitate the training of particular skill sets. For example, this province is endowed with minerals such as diamonds, manganese, iron ore, lithium, zinc, copper, lead, and molybdenum ore, among others. It also boasts unique attributes that position it as a potential leader in solar energy and important work is happily being undertaken in this regard.
 
It should therefore be possible for the Northern Cape to become a leader in careers such as chemistry, heavy equipment operating, environmental consulting, mine surveying, geology as well as mining, geological, electrocortical and project engineers, to mention just a few.
 
Working together with the rest of the country, the Southern African Development Community region and the continent, such skills, especially at the leadership level, could be pooled together for the good of all in a concerted effort to lift more than one billion Africans out of poverty.
 
There is therefore a need to re-examine the SADC Education and Skills Development Programme to ensure that we pool the region’s human, financial and other resources to address common skills capacity challenges on a sustained and sustainable basis.
 
In as much as we seek to improve our skills' capacity in order to build an inclusive economy and society, so too do the region and continent need to do so. And so shall put behind us the South Africa which Solomon Tshekiso Plaatje described in Native Life in South Africa, his 1916 text about life after the passage of the 1913 Native Land Act: “South Africa has by law ceased to be the home of any of her native children whose skins are dyed with a hue that does not conform to the regulation hue.”
 
Mintiro ya bulabula — deeds speak for themselves! So, let’s do it!
 
Thank you.