The Farce of Affirmative action

From the desk of John Brandow

I attended the first day of the Skills and training summit at the CSIR in Pretoria yesterday.
Statements and statistics given by some of the speakers have indicated clearly that Affirmative action is a farce.  10 years ago there was a shortage of 300 000 managers in South Africa.  Over this period only 30 000 was trained and the shortage figure is now higher than 10 years ago.  Still the government sticks to its affirmative action policy.  My opinion ?  I contend that this shortage can be eliminated by appointed white males that are skilled and out there !  Exactly the same scenario exists in the artisan field.  No figures were given but it is a fact that if a bucket has a hole it will eventually run empty if it is not filled with at least the same stream of water that is running out.  There are only 5000 to 7000 thousand artisans trained anually while there is a need for at least 20 000  in South Africa. No need for a calculator here.
Again most of the artisans that is needed is most probably available in the White pool.

Massive new projects are planned and under way - Ellisras for instance (see www.ellisras.blogspot.com)  Where is the artisans going to come from ?   Where is the managers going to come from ?

Biggest question however is WHEN IS THE GOVERNMENT GOING TO WAKE UP AND START THINKING FOR THEMSELVES ?