Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 1, 2001
Barry Streek

The strategy, tabled in Parliament this week, is intended to improve the country's Human Development Index. It recognises that poverty-related health issues, including HIV/Aids, will have a significant effect on future trends, including education, the population and the work force.

"The South African population will be severely affected by Aids, impacting significantly on all strata of the economically active labour force as well as among the unemployed, and the epidemic will probably exacerbate the existing skills shortage in the economy.

"South Africa's life expectancy is 54,7 years, but is expected to drop to 47 years as a consequence of poverty and disease," the document says. It also says the high degree of inequality, in particular race, gender and disability, is reflected in the Gini coefficient index of 0,60, which "makes it the most unequal society after Brazil".

Income inequality, a social reality in South Africa, is viewed as placing severe limitations on human resource development. Figures cited in the document indicate that between 1975 and 1991, the income of 60% of the population -- regarded as the poorest -- dropped by about 35%. By 1996 the gulf between rich and the poor had grown even larger. The poorest quintile [the poorest 20%] receive 1,5% of the total income, compared to the 65% received by the richest 10%.

This extreme inequality, the document argues, "limits the ability of individuals, households and the government to finance the enhancement of skills, education and training that are critical prerequisites for improved participation in the labour market, and therefore, improved income".

Highly skewed income inequality is identified as dampening the generation of an "increased aggregate demand for goods and services, thereby limiting economic growth".

Illiteracy also features strongly in the document as a factor inhibiting economic development. Illiteracy figures stand at three million, and millions more are regarded as semi-literate. As a result many people cannot participate fully in the political, economic and social spheres of life.

A breakdown of these figures indicate that about 67% of persons aged 15 years and above, and 83% of those aged between 15 and 24, have completed Grade 6 and are considered to be functionally literate.

South Africa's literacy levels compared with other countries is as follows: the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, all at 99%, Malaysia 86,4%, Zimbabwe 87,2%, Nigeria 61,1%, India 55,7% and Mozambique 42,3%."

The document slams South African employers for a poor training record. "Private sector workplace industrial training declined from a peak of 344907 employees in 1990 to 129 133 in 1996 to a low 77 812 in 1998."

Newly indentured apprentices dropped from 9 660 in 1986 to 3 129 in 1999 -- a 66% decline. The total number of artisans in the workplace dropped from 29 826 in 1986 to 16 868 in 1999.

The new strategy also places emphasis on early childhood education, childhood development, adult education and training, and securing a supply of scarce skills within the further and higher education bands of the national qualification framework. In the same vein, small business development, research and innovation sectors to support industrial and employment growth policies are prioritised.

In joint foreword to the document Minister of Education Kader Asmal and Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana say despite the ambitious goals contained in the report, Cabinet wants to create "an enabling human resource development environment to make our nation work and to enjoy a better life".
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