Accolades for trailblazers who hone competitive edge
● The final week of Productivity Month, October, culminated in companies receiving accolades for their productivity improvements.
Winners of the National Productivity Awards 2018 were announced by Productivity SA. CEO Mothunye Mothiba said the awards aim to “galvanise” companies into higher levels of productivity.
This year’s winners are:
● Emerging sector: Darling Sweet CC
● Corporate sector: Anax Logistics
● Public sector: Timbali Technology Incubator
● Co-operative sector (joint winners): High Wave Agricultural Co-operative; Mutale Intergrated Energy Co-operative and KwaZulu Ladies Empowerment Financial Services Co-operative.
Mothiba said: “The rationale behind Productivity Month is to showcase, share ideas, methods and perspectives on how companies can improve productivity.”
The run-up to the awards was marked by productivity improvement workshops countrywide. Productivity Month aims to achieve broad objectives such as promoting productivity and competitiveness, raising awareness about the role of productivity in enabling economic growth and promoting awareness about the roles programmes that enable improvement in productivity.
Productivity Month had initially started as a week of activities where creating awareness and competitiveness were intensified.
Almost two decades later, the activities have developed into a fully fledged Productivity Month that is an annual campaign.
The awareness campaign was introduced by the then minister of labour, Membathisi Mdladlana.
The chairman of the Productivity SA Board, Mthunzi Mdwaba, said productivity and competitiveness are inextricably linked and are the main drivers of economic growth, income and better living standards.
“Higher productivity is particularly important for more successful competitiveness in markets which are open to international competition, as it brings about a long-term improvement in the quality of life and in the creation of jobs,” said Mdwaba.
Productivity improvement is considered the most effective way of ensuring competitiveness, economic growth and, tackling unemployment, poverty and inequality.
He expressed concern the South African economy and its enterprises are feeling the effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is characterised by rapid globalisation, disruptive technologies, the growth of the digital economy and the changing of worker attitudes and values, which are reshaping the world and the future of work.
Therefore, Productivity SA’s response to the challenges must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders and strategic partners from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society.
The awards were introduced in the late 1970s to create additional awareness of the importance of productivity through the recognition of the best performers.
Since then, Productivity SA has recognised and awarded more than 100 different enterprises for their efforts in improving and sustaining productivity.
The awards are in line with the department of labour’s core objectives, including reducing unemployment, poverty and inequality through improved economic efficiency and productivity, skills development and job creation, sound labour relations, and eliminating inequality and discrimination in the workplace.
The regional productivity awards culminate in the national awards ceremony where the regional winners are presented as finalists for the national awards.
The participants comprise primarily companies that have signed up for Productivity SA programmes such as the Workplace Challenge Programme (WPC), Turnaround Solutions Programme (TAS) and Productivity Organisational Solutions (POS).