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Cape Town - The deputy president Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka came to the defence of the chairperson of the Employment Equity Commission, Jimmy Manyi, on Wednesday.
Answering questions in the National Assembly, she said that Manyi was right to say that employers were under-using people with appropriate qualifications.
Manyi told a parliamentary committee that the skills shortage was "an urban legend", because there are unemployed blacks with appropriate skills who are not hired.
"There is empirical evidence to back him up," the deputy president said.
"The presidency has done its own research which shows that there are unemployed graduates with appropriate degrees shunned by industry.
Universities
"Sometimes they don't want to take them because they don't have experience," she said. "Sometimes they come from historically black universities, so they have got an attitude."
She urged employers to use everybody and enhance their skills. "By getting a degree at a tertiary level you have demonstrated that you have the capacity to conceptualise," she said. "You show you have high level of cognitive skills.
"But to tell me that a person who comes from such and such a university is no good, is what makes Mr Manyi mad. And I think he's got a point there. Give the man a break."
The deputy president did praise some firms such as KPMG who have taken in 40 black women.
She said: "Some of them have a degree in B.Comm and some of them were sitting at home contemplating taking just any job. Some of them now are on their way to become accountants or CAs."
- I-Net Bridge