23 December 2005
	IMPORT THE SKILLS Mohale Rakgate, via e-mail.

Regarding Trevor Manuel's recipe for 6% growth (Cover Story December 9), I think that unless and until we sufficiently address the question of skills and education, we will still be lamenting about the unemployment crisis in a decade's time. Perhaps, and ironically, Zimbabwe could prove a good example in this instance. Immediately after its independence, Zimbabwe imported hundreds of skilled teachers from other African countries to improve its skills base. Despite its present woes and because of its skills base, I believe it would take Zimbabwe less than five years to recover from the economic meltdown - if the political situation were normalised. It is about time unions became patriotic and thought beyond their employed members; and for government to provide leadership and govern. It will take only 12 years of importing valuable skills to remedy the problem. I think it's a bitter pill that we need to swallow now for the well-being of future generations. Parallel to that, some of the unqualified and underqualified could be trained to be more productive. Unless tackled head-on, poor education levels will be the main constraint to SA's advancement. The privileged few, I mean the rising and empowered black middle class, should organise themselves to adopt rural and township schools to impart the knowledge and skills they have acquired - it is in their own interest. This is nothing short of a national emergency.