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The US did it – so can SA
If the US model is anything to go by, the path to South
African economic recovery lies in greater productivity
through more flexible labour laws, and exploitation of the
energy reserves currently lying in the Karoo, a manufacturing
forum in Sandton heard on Wednesday, 20 August.
A
t a Frontier Forum seminar hosted jointly by the IDC and
Deloitte professional services group, president and CEO
of the Ford Motor Company of South Africa Jeff Nemeth
said that the US over the past five years had successfully achieved
exactly what South Africa wishes to accomplish: re-industrialisation.
Mr Nemeth said South Africa already had all the tools it needed to
accomplish the same feat as the US. “The US achieved its reindustrialisation using just two tools: greater productivity through
labour flexibility and a lower cost of energy through fracking. South
Africa has the option to do the same: introduce more flexible labour
laws and exploit fracking in the Karoo,” said Mr Nemeth.
Deloitte is the thought leadership partner of Frontier Forum, and
Deloitte Africa Manufacturing leader and director Karthi Pillay said
the future of manufacturing globally “will be about technologyled manufacturing, most likely heavily influenced by disruptive
innovations using Big Data - like driverless cars, 3D-printing as a
form of manufacture and telematics”. In contrast, government’s
National Development Plan (NDP) and unions alike are intent on
protecting and creating low-skill, low-pay jobs that will simply be
economically irrelevant ten years from now.
The speakers were part of a panel from business, government
and labour that was discussing the way forward for manufacturing
in South Africa. “Future jobs in successful economies will be
high-tech jobs, not low-tech. To this end, Deloitte is globally
spending time working with leading universities, and the public
and private sectors in various countries to understand and
shape the future of manufacturing, and what this means for local
economies such as South Africa,” said Mr Pillay. The NDP calls
for the halving of unemployment by 2030, requiring the creation
of 11-million jobs, of which a considerable number will have to
come from low-skill, minimum pay public works projects. Trade
unions are simultaneously looking at protecting existing low-tech
manufacturing jobs. A shift to high-tech manufacturing would not be
achieved by the model currently being pursued in South Africa, one
of social dialogue to find answers.
Coenraad Bezuidenhout, director of the Manufacturing Circle
said social dialogue was of “little value in transforming South
Africa’s economy as it only solidifies the positions adopted by the
government, business and labour”. Martyn Davies, forum facilitator
and CEO of Frontier Advisory, sai