It would take someone with dedication and superhuman skills to drive an institution with the mission to bring down South Africa’s unacceptably high level of unemployment and, thus, poverty.
Dr Mbuyiseli Vanguard Mkosana, the new Director General of the Department of Labour, concedes the difficulties. Mkosana’s appointment was announced by Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana last week. He replaces Rams Ramashia, who resigned in May.
Mkosana, say departmental officials, is closer to Mdladlana than his predecessor was, and familiar with the inner workings of the department. From 2000 he was deputy director general for internal management and operations, and after Ramashia’s resignation he was named acting director general.
A former mineworker, teacher and unionist, he went into exile in 1980 and studied journalism at Charles University in what was then Czechoslovakia. In the 1990s he also served as general secretary of the Congress of South African Writers.
Mkosana says his immediate task is to wipe out corruption and ensure that the department delivers on its mandates. ”We have a clear vision and well defined policies and programmes, but there is a slight gap between the good policies and the realisation of those policies. This tells you that we need to improve on how we implement our policies,” Mkosana said in an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week.
The department has already added to the number of inspectors monitoring the implementation of labour laws throughout the country. The department is also running short of specialist personnel. According to the department’s more recent annual reports, vacancies in excess of 20% persist in many areas, particularly statistics and programme management.
Accelerating skills development is another priority for Mkosana. Poor employment growth appears primarily caused by a shift in the kind of labour required by an economy more and more dependent on skilled or semi-skilled workers.
Mkosana says that, although progress has been made in terms of the national skills development strategy, his department was concerned about the level of dropouts within the government’s sector education and training authorities. The training agencies were established in 2000 to address the skills backlog in the country and are at the centre of government’s plan to halve unemployment by 2014.
The M&G has reported that only 10% of the more than 70 000 learners registered for learnerships complete the programmes.
Corruption also comes high on the list of Mkosana’s priorities. He said his department was working closely with the auditor general and the Scorpions, and a number of officials have already been arrested on changes ranging from fraud to corruption”.