EC ports gateway to jobs

THE announcement by the president on Armed Forces Day that the Navy is poised to create 5 000 jobs is the best indicator that our new president aims to be a jobs president.

The budget submitted by his finance minister in parliament the other day also contains further evidence of this with the allocation of about R23billion for job creation.

The jobs summit announced by the president cannot come fast enough for the Eastern Cape with the highest unemployment statistics in the country. The recent announcement in the Eastern Cape legislature that the department of health has 7 118 unfilled vacancies, some of which are high-salaried positions, means we have to look to both sides of the road in fighting unemployment.

We had assumed all along that our unemployment rate was the result of a lack of jobs in the marketplace.

At face value these unexplained vacancies indicate a cruel mismatch between what the employer needs and what the unemployed have in skills. It is a problem that permeates throughout the job market.

Skills training is going to the left and employers’ skills needs to the right. It is a phenomenon the jobs summit should address and we should bring our ideas to the table.

The president singled out ship building and the role of the navy in job creation. Shipbuilding and repair are a growing industry as part of Operation Phakisa, the economy of the sea projected to create even more employment opportunities in the future. It is a massive socioeconomic zone with many moving parts.

In its February 19 report, Defence Web magazine states that shipbuilding in South Africa produces hundreds of vessels every year – 90% of which are for the export market.

Of all the maritime provinces, the Eastern Cape has the longest coast to patrol and the least investment in this growing industry. Yet to our north Durban is a developed shipbuilding industry that is expanding into ports of other parts of Africa.

Southern African Shipyards began operations in 1996. It is reportedly 60% black owned and 12% employee owned. Its focus is skills development and enterprise development. Both skills areas we could use in the battle against unemployment. It boasts the catchy slogan “People First!” – a refreshing departure from most investors who emphasise “profits first”.

In preparation for our participation in the jobs summit, we can perhaps meet with such progressive companies to find out how our ports can be part of their expansion plans.

We cannot build battle ships in the port space we have, but we can perhaps handle a percentage of river patrol boats for the Great Lakes region, Brazil and the Far East river traffic. We could even build boat parts, such as masts for sail boats. We can also invite the navy to have a presence in the East London and Port Elizabeth ports.

Operation Thusano, the skills project between the South African Navy and the Cuban Revolutionary Defence forces is succeeding in transferring engineering, technical skills and experience where they have a presence to our population.

These are skills that can be used by our engineering graduates to gain professional experience for the open job market. For the navy, presence in our ports makes sense. They can spend more time on patrol with ports nearby. The illegal fishing vessels know that neither East London nor Port Elizabeth have even a bath tub to patrol our fishing grounds. In 2016 of course we showed everyone what we can do when we intercepted and brought those three foreign fishing vessels to the East London port.

All of this means the preparation for a successful jobs summit begins now and depends on us. The health department is well placed to share its problems in filling lucrative posts and possible solutions.

Our port masters are well placed to present on available space in our ports and how it can accommodate the navy expansion announced by the president. Successful small business entrepreneurs can share strategies on how to do it on one’s own. Entrepreneurs can share their thoughts on how to turn their ideas into enterprises. If we fail to prepare we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

— Wongaletu Vanda