SA urges 'skills revolution'

"Nothing short of a skills revolution by a nation united will extricate us from the crisis we face ... the most fatal constraint to shared growth is skills," deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday.

South Africa's government wants to boost growth in the continent's biggest economy to an average annual rate of 6% by 2010 to ease widespread poverty among the black majority and reduce a jobless rate of more than 26%.

Part of that effort involves spending R320bn on infrastructure over the next few years, but top officials have acknowledged that a lack of skills may obstruct those plans, and are already hampering service delivery.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said the government had put together a task team which would establish a data base in 18 months detailing what skills South Africa needed and how it could acquire them.

People who had left key professions would be recalled and the government would look "all over the world" for required skills, she said.

Key areas included engineers for transport, communication and energy sectors, along with city and urban planning experts and artisans like welders, plumbers and technicians.

"For retired skills the focus is on people with previous exposure to water reticulation, sanitation projects as well as retired chartered accountants," she said.

South African immigration lawyers said last month that bureaucratic delays in granting work permits are denying South Africa skilled foreigners needed in the sectors key to boosting economic growth.