Africa received a stern warning from the Deputy President of the continent’s biggest economy that its growth and development ambitions were threatened by its anaemic skills investment.

The continent must not allow the lack of skills development “to define why we are in a vicious cycle of poverty and global marginalisation”, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka cautioned.

In a speech that Transport Minister Jeff Radebe delivered in her absence, she said that, while African countries could use foreign skills, it also needed to develop its own.

“Our desire to ensure massive infrastructure investment as a platform for further economic development may be undermined by our lack of investment in skills development,” Mlambo-Ngcuka stated.

“While foreign investors bring about leading skills in the design and building of structures, much of the supporting skills must be borne by the local population,” she said.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said that Africa must not “shy away” from generating people with skills that provide engineering leadership in infrastructure development on the continent.

Financing The Deputy President went on to stress the importance of private enterprise involvement in Africa’s infrastructure projects, and that governments should work with private companies, including public–private partnerships.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said that partnerships with financial insti- tutions, both local and international, must be facilitated to optimise the impact on Africa’s infrastructure projects.

“Investment and merchant banks with expertise and access to funding must be engaged all the time,” she said.

“Regional development banks must also look to being more proactive in this area and more flexible to long-term financial packages that are in the interests of the whole Southern African Development Community region.”

One of Africa’s major developmental stumbling blocks was its lack of infrastructure.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said that the focus on development in Africa had thus far been mainly on health and education, and that infrastructure had not received adequate attention in public policy and spending.

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