Maritime industry ‘must join drive for jobs’

adding that casual, uncoordinated employment was not the answer as it was not sustainable.

“There is no clear vision among these unemployed young people as to where they want to be.”

By 2020, 11 million jobs would have to be created to eliminate unemployment. This target had been set by a commission of prominent people in business and industry.

Every government department needed to play a part in fighting unemployment, said Mkhize, which was why parastatals such as the SA Maritime Safety Authority and the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board had begun taking the lead in the new emphasis on job creation in the maritime sector.

Prasheen Maharaj, financial director at Southern African Shipyards, drew an analogy between job creation and the challenges that faced SA in preparing for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, when the country had been given a difficult target but had succeeded.

“There was a national will to succeed – we dared not lose,” Maharaj told the summit, saying the same attitude had to be applied to the shipbuilding and repairs industries