There are significant discrepancies between formal qualification requirements and the actual skills employed by workers on South African production lines. For instance, certifying one artisan through rigorous programs, such as training or craft courses, costs R388,052, which is more expensive than graduating a university specialist for R370,923.
According to a survey, about half of manufacturers consider the lack of skilled labor a serious obstacle to their business. An example from a packaging line near Pietermaritzburg shows an operator, without a formal certificate, adjusting a machine to prevent a batch jam, while on another section, a setter completes stamp retooling faster than the calculated time by knowing the most efficient sequence by heart. Both employees made a decisive contribution to achieving the shift's production goals.
A similar situation is observed across all production lines in the country: there is a real, hard-earned, and daily applied skill that is almost entirely ignored by South Africa's industrial workforce development assessment system. This gap has become costly. In August 2025, the Bureau for Economic Research reviewed the SETA system and found that when excluding short, low-complexity courses that artificially inflate figures, the cost of certifying one artisan through core pathways is R388,052.
Furthermore, during the review period, SETA's income grew by 46% in real terms, while the number of certifications decreased by 23%. SETA's output per employee dropped from 92 certifications per year to 35. The system only achieves between 4% and 6.6% compared to the target of the National Skills Development Plan—approximately one in ten workers annually.
Riaz Moola, manager of the HyperionDev training center, clearly articulated the problem in May: South Africa is facing a 'growing results problem.' He argued that success in skills development was long measured by the number of people enrolled in a program, not what it led to. Although his focus is on digital talent, this deficiency is particularly acute in factories.
At the upcoming summit in Sandton on July 14 and 15, under the slogan 'Made in Africa: Scaling Growth, Shaping Trade,' the shortage of artisans will be discussed. The usual reflex is to call for increased training, enrollment numbers, throughput, and funding, but this approach mistakenly treats a measurement failure as a volume problem.
Production cannot be scaled if there is a lack of personnel, and personnel cannot be hired from a system that becomes increasingly expensive and less productive every year. A certificate was never created to document what keeps a line running. Knowledge gained in a classroom months ago says little about whether an operator can troubleshoot a specific machine today. These skills are formed through work, shift after shift, and this is what manufacturers lack. They lack trained people; they lack a way to see, prove, and develop the competencies that employees already demonstrate.
The situation is exacerbated by the contraction of the manufacturing sector itself, which was the biggest drag on GDP in the last quarter of 2025 and contracted again in the first quarter of 2026, despite the broader economy showing its strongest year since 2022. Under such pressure, the industry cannot afford to pay high prices for certificates, while the skill it needs remains unnoticed and underutilized.
However, there is no need to call for the abolition of qualifications, as they remain important for worker mobility regardless of the employer. The correction lies in ceasing to view the certificate as an endpoint and starting continuous competency recognition where it is used. Existing frontline systems allow this to be done in practice. When brief training is delivered to an operator on the same phone used for scheduling and payroll, training becomes part of the work week, not a one-off or burdensome event.
When an employee logs a fault, records a fix, or signs off on a safety check on that device, the entry serves a dual function: it provides evidence for auditing and simultaneously creates a living map of who knows what and where gaps exist before they stop the line. This gives management something that a box of certificates never could: an up-to-date picture and understanding of the capabilities of the entire workforce distributed across multiple sites.
This approach is also a matter of fairness in a country where 60.9% of youth aged 15 to 24 are unemployed. A young worker who can prove their competence through daily results, rather than relying solely on a certificate that might have been difficult for them to obtain, receives a clearer path to recognition and advancement. Measuring skills where they happen rewards what people can already do—exactly what the labor market needs, which is suffering from a shortage of artisans but is overpopulated with excluded youth.
South Africa does not need additional spending on industrial development. It needs to stop confusing attendance with ability and focus on the shop floor. The artisans the sector says it cannot find are often already working. What was missing was a system capable of seeing, recognizing, and utilizing them as the foundation for the next generation of skilled artisans we need. However, time is running out, and this opportunity exists only as long as organizations can retain these skilled workers before economic downturns or retirement intervene. This is a race we can still win, and without spending billions.
Experts insist on the need to implement a competency-based hiring system in South African public institutions, as the country's ports and municipalities are in decline. According to specialists, transitioning to meritocracy in municipalities and state-owned enterprises can solve problems in key government sectors that drive economic growth.
According to the S&P Global Container Port Performance Index, compiled jointly with the World Bank, South African ports ranked lowest among 400 ports surveyed globally. The Port of Durban was rated 398th out of 400, and the Port of Cape Town was ranked 400th. Although the Port of Durban showed the greatest improvement, its ranking remained unchanged. It was reported that the country's fruit exports lost billions of rands due to serious operational failures at the Port of Cape Town, forcing producers to ship fresh produce to other ports.
Concurrently, the Auditor-General of South Africa, Tsakane Maluleke, reported that the country's municipalities are showing regression not only in audit results but also in financial standing and service delivery. None of the eight South African municipalities received a clean audit opinion. These municipalities, including the City of Johannesburg, City of Cape Town, eThekwini Municipality, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Mangaung, Buffalo City Metro, and Nelson Mandela Bay, are responsible for nearly 54% of local government expenditure and serve about 40% of the country's population and households.
This week, the National Treasury announced that it has suspended the transfer of 13.5 billion rands in equitable share to 69 municipalities that committed violations. According to the National Treasury, these municipalities, some of which, failed to comply with financial norms and other financial management directives.
Professor William Gumede, an expert from the University of Witwatersrand School of Management, emphasized that only competent individuals should be appointed to public institutions, and applying a deployment system in key areas is unacceptable; everything must be based on merit. Gumede noted that collapse occurs in key state structures, such as ports, when incompetent staff are hired. He also stated that procurement must be reviewed by thoroughly vetting those involved in supply chain management and engaging reliable companies with proven experience in effective service delivery.
Gumede proposed introducing a public-private partnership system in critically important areas, such as ports, which are vital for economic growth. According to his idea, companies wishing to modernize or improve systems should not receive government funding for tenders. Instead, they should raise their own financing through commercial banks and other sources, and then have the right to manage the facilities for a certain period before handing them over to the state. This, he said, would significantly help eradicate tender fraud.
He added that for better oversight, tender results should be published. 'We must know who the directors are and whether they have any ties to specific political parties or politicians. Their performance or competence can be publicly assessed. There is a lack of civil movements in the economic space. Therefore, let us include ports on the Parliament's watch list, where we will receive quarterly reports on port operations. Everything must be transparent,' stated Gumede.
Gumede stressed that if, for example, temperature-sensitive agricultural products are destroyed at the port before reaching their destination due to inefficiency, it will be a catastrophe not only for the involved companies but for the entire ecosystem. He explained that this would lead countries and companies relying on supplies from South Africa to either have to buy goods from other countries or turn to suppliers capable of ensuring timely delivery, resulting in business loss for local companies.
He said this also negatively affects GDP, as agriculture, along with mining, has supported the country's GDP for many years. To achieve economic growth, the country needs to export its goods. Exports stimulate the economy and increase employment opportunities because as exports increase, companies become busier, creating more jobs.
Some local logistics experts argued that the World Bank's CPPI metric only considers vessel time in port, ignoring geography, weather, and land evacuation. However, Gumede called this reaction 'defensive,' as other countries face worse weather conditions than South Africa but still cope. He urged against taking a defensive stance, as it undermines efforts for rapid port recovery, and insisted that the focus should always be on finding solutions.
Gumede also noted that most municipalities fail due to a lack of political accountability. He warned that if these governance issues are not resolved, large companies may leave municipalities and settle in smaller, more efficiently managed municipalities. Regarding the loss of clean audit status by the City of Cape Town, Gumede called it an alarming signal for the city requiring strengthened measures.
To address problems in the public sector and ensure economic growth, Gumede believes it is necessary to start with proper leadership for managing institutions. It is also important to examine the work culture to determine if employees are coming to work; if they are absent, trade unions should be involved to prevent the protection of dishonest employees. The country must clean up the procurement sphere by contracting with efficient companies, reducing corruption, and implementing a monitoring system for these institutions. Transparency is required during the recovery, and this must be reported publicly through Parliament, with the Auditor-General participating in all these processes.
David Rudd, Chief Economist at Efficient Group, stated that ports with the lowest ratings have a huge negative impact on the economy, especially on sectors like agriculture and mining. He emphasized that these two sectors can contribute significantly to the economy but cannot export goods due to port inefficiencies. Rudd noted that the country needs to make much greater efforts and allocate more funds not only to ports but also to many other infrastructure projects. The country is currently in a state of 'running in place.'
He added that Transnet has brought in private port operators, especially in Durban, to improve efficiency, and progress is being seen, albeit at a very low level. Another way to improve port operations is to delegate more authority to various provinces. Rudd also reported that due to delays at ports, some South African mines are already redirecting their exports through the Port of Maputo in Mozambique, meaning a loss of business as companies often bypass South Africa due to inefficiency.
He pointed out that municipal user payment models, where clients are billed for actual service consumption, are violated due to ineffective political leadership. Rudd concluded that the deployment system applies not only to municipalities but also to state-owned enterprises that are collapsing due to poor political leadership. The only way to restore these institutions is strong, ethical political leadership and ensuring that everyone appointed to municipal and state institutions is competent, and appointments are based on merit. He also noted a political shift in the country, as no single political party holds an absolute majority, leading to some form of accountability for those in political office.
South Africa's qualification system has long served as a vital tool for socio-economic transformation since the beginning of democracy. For millions of South Africans, these qualifications opened previously closed opportunities, providing access to employment, further education, career growth, and economic participation. They have contributed to industrial development, the strengthening of public institutions, and the creation of prospects for individuals, families, and communities.
Consequently, discussions regarding the phased phasing out of outdated qualifications have naturally caused concern, uncertainty, and anxiety among students, graduates, training providers, and employers. When people hear the term 'phased withdrawal,' the initial fear is that something valuable will be lost.
It is crucial to state and unequivocally emphasize that already issued qualifications remain valid and recognized. A qualification obtained through hard work, sacrifice, and dedication does not lose its value simply because a new qualification has been introduced. It remains recorded in the National Learner Database and continues to be part of that person's educational and career path. This principle is strongly supported by the government, SAQA, and all partners.
This conversation is not about diminishing the value of the past, but about guaranteeing value for the future. The world of work is changing at unprecedented rates. Technology is transforming industries, and artificial intelligence (AI) is altering the nature of jobs. New professions are emerging while others disappear. Employers increasingly demand not only theoretical knowledge from employees but also practical competence and work experience.
Many qualifications developed before 2009 were created for a completely different economic environment. While they served an important function and significantly contributed to workforce development, many were heavily focused on classroom instruction and did not always provide sufficient opportunities for structured on-the-job learning.
Therefore, South Africa is moving towards professional qualifications. These qualifications are developed in close collaboration with industry and employers. They integrate knowledge, practical skills, and work experience. Their goal is to ensure that upon completion of studies, a student not only possesses a paper qualification but is also better prepared for workplace realities.
This is not merely an administrative procedure; it is a fundamental reform aimed at strengthening the link between education, skills development, and employment. In a context where youth unemployment remains one of South Africa's most serious problems, the country cannot afford a qualification system that operates independently of labor market realities. Qualifications must respond to the needs of industry, the economy, and society.
For many young people, obtaining a qualification represents hope—years of study, financial sacrifices, and personal determination. However, hope is not enough. Qualifications must also enhance employability and create pathways to meaningful economic participation. This is why modernizing qualifications is important.
Nevertheless, the transition must be managed responsibly. SAQA recognizes that behind every qualification code lies a human story—the story of a student striving for a better future, a parent investing in their child's education, an employee achieving promotion, or a training provider supporting learners and communities. These realities demand an orderly, fair, and transparent transition.
The recent statement by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Buti Mnamalela, reflects the government's commitment to achieving precisely this. Instead of adopting a universal approach, qualifications were assessed individually, and transitional mechanisms were introduced where necessary to protect learners and minimize disruptions. This demonstrates a balanced approach that acknowledges both the urgency of reforms and the need for stability.
Furthermore, this process highlighted the importance of collaboration. The progress achieved was made possible by the collective efforts of SAQA, the Department of Higher Education and Training, the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), colleges, training providers, employers, and industry stakeholders. A transformation of this magnitude cannot be achieved by any single organization alone; it requires a shared commitment to building a qualification system that serves both learners and the economy.
SAQA views this moment as an opportunity to strengthen public trust in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Their responsibility extends beyond merely registering qualifications; they are the custodians of a system designed to ensure quality, credibility, transparency, and lifelong learning opportunities for all South Africans. The shift from outdated to professional qualifications is part of a broader vision: creating a future-oriented, internationally comparable, and responsive system that meets changing economic conditions. This ensures employer confidence in qualifications, equips learners with relevant skills, develops South Africa's human potential for competition in a complex global economy, and, most importantly, guarantees that no learner is left behind.
