Efficiency & A Shared Vision

Melanie Veness:  PCB CEO

I attended one of the KZN Provincial Planning Commission’s stakeholder consultation sessions this week and I must say that the level of open debate about issues was appreciated.

It is clear from the engagement that the current state of our province is not acceptable, that the current way of doing things is not working, and that we are going to need strong, decisive and visionary leadership into the future that is open to creative solutions and willing to engage, debate and take decisive action. What we in essence need is “efficiency” in all sectors – business, government and labour, and above all, a shared vision.

The provincial economy is driven largely by manufacturing. In order to compete, manufacturers need to become more efficient in their production processes and they need to be more efficient in the management of their supply chains. In fact, all businesses need to keep abreast of new process management methodology and technological changes. 

Our labour force too, is inefficient in comparison to international standards, and this needs to change if we are to compete.

The only sector showing increased employment in our province is the government sector which is hugely problematic. In a maturing economy, government employment should decline gradually, in our case the increases are exponential. Rather than making trading conditions easier and improving social conditions, the fragmentation, duplication, corruption and inter-departmental politics is hampering development in these spheres.

In this context, the adoption of Lean methodology may hold out hope as its relates to both process change and culture change. It produces better productivity through the removal of waste from process and by means of worker empowerment and consequent output accountability it offers a possible implementable solution for both government and the business sector.

As was alluded to earlier, we need to be open to new technology and to better and more efficient ways of doing things and we need to boldly adopt them. Take the free supply of electricity to indigent households as an example. This places a huge burden on local governments coffers, and yet the technology to extract energy from cow dung is here and available. It's a highly appropriate methodology, and ideally suited to our peri-urban environment - I’ve seen it working. Imagine how empowering it would be to teach communities to produce their own cooking and lighting gas, not to mention the savings.

In terms of engaging, business needs to be proactive and attend sessions like this in order to be heard. There are a number of opportunities for engagement and the upcoming African Renaissance Conference on August 4 and 5 at the ICC offers such an opportunity.   It desires to bring government, business and civil society together in order to find solutions to our challenges, and if the programme is anything to go by, there is serious commitment from government’s side. The theme is “Connecting Africa” and the programme  will cover everything  from road, rail, air and maritime connectivity to tourism challenges and opportunities.  It is essentially about how Africa can access, develop and harness it’s own resources. Topics covered will include spatial planning around the development of economic corridors, connecting every African capital city and KZN investment protocol etc. If you able to, take the time and make a contribution.

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