T-Systems was created in SA in 2001 through a joint venture between Debis and Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest telecom and IT company.
Wolfgang Jakob became CEO of the new company, which provides IT and telecommunications solutions to focused markets "like financial services, the telecom industry, agriculture, retail and manufacturing," says Jakob. T-Systems' empowerment partner, African Renaissance Holdings, holds 25%.
Cida's mission to turn out graduates with the skills needed in the marketplace is in line with Jakob's transformation strategy. "We want to meet this challenge of being part of the new SA," he says. "And this is exactly how I would do it."
The IT industry is still very white and very male, says Jakob. "And not just in SA; it is in fact an international problem."
Apart from the imperative of transformation, the IT industry is grappling with a skills shortage both in SA and globally.
"I struggle to get mature managers who can help us run the organisation," says Jakob.
To be able to fill the shortage, graduates must have more than a basic understanding and foundation level qualifications. "They must have areas of specialisation. We want to do some research to find out what specialisations are needed and then put them on the Cida curriculum," says Jakob.
With its business partner and main client Sanlam, T-Systems has already donated 150 computers. "Our target is to get them 500 computers by the end of the year," says Jakob.
In addition, T-Systems is initiating the IT academy project at Cida in partnership with a German government development agency, Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), and other major IT companies. DEG has committed R2m to the project.
T-Systems will set up a Cida IT academy with industry certification, which will be supervised by major IT players, including T-Systems, Dimension Data, Microsoft SA, Cisco Systems, SAP, Oracle, Comptia, Succint and Espial Consulting, among others.
"We are a group of IT organisations that all have the same interests in creating ICT (information, communication and telecom) skills in SA," says Jakob.
DEG is the only Cida City Campus funder not in the private sector. DEG's core business is providing equity or long-term loan finance to private companies in developing or transition countries, in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
"We also administer special schemes on behalf of the German government, one of which is a public private partnership (PPP) programme for European enterprises," says Beate Baethke, who heads its Johannesburg office.
"We work in partnership with socially responsible companies which, for example, experience skills shortages and initiate a training programme," says Baethke. "But there must be a broad benefit to society as well. We match the investment made by the European partner up to roughly R2m."
Baethke describes its investment in Cida as "one of the best PPP projects we have in SA". DEG has 10 others, some of which are environmental projects.
