South African trade union Solidarity on Wednesday welcomed the proposed enlarging of Sasol’s coal-to-liquid (CTL) fuel operations. This comes after reports that Sasol and the government were engaged in talks regarding expansion of the operations.
Sasol confirmed on Tuesday that preliminary discussions had been held with the government regarding a possible future increase in synthetic fuels production capacity in South Africa, including a possible greenfields CTL project.
Pat Davies, Sasol chief executive, said: “We are fully committed to supporting the growth plans of our home market in South Africa. We believe there is a real opportunity to partner with government to meet the needs of the country’s growing liquid fuel requirements.”
According to Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans, there is a great need in SA for industries like Sasol’s coal-to-oil operations to create decent new job opportunities.
“As South Africa’s energy needs keep growing, government and the private sector would be well advised to invest now in the expansion of such industries.”
A study that was recently undertaken by Solidarity shows that 72% of South African workers are employed in firms with less than 50 employees.
“There is a continuous decline in the percentage of workers employed by big businesses. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the best job — particularly when it comes to remuneration packages, employment terms and long-term career opportunities, are found in the larger enterprises. Investment in these enterprises should be increased if unemployment is to be reduced in a sustainable manner.”
Solidarity reiterated its concerns about the country’s skills shortage.
“At a time when our country has a great need for proper, sustainable job opportunities in the formal sector, it is of concern to us that we may not be able to meet the demand for skills that will be brought about by growth in this area.
“Government, businesses and other role players must do more to train unskilled people, particularly in technical occupations. Solidarity’s training centre, Sol-Tech, is at present training 44 electricians and a large number of pump attendants, among others.
“We should like to see more initiatives from companies and other institutions to train unskilled people,” Kleynhans added. – I-Net Bridge