If a country’s artisan skills base was weak, chances were its economy would be weak, said Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas at the opening of Mercedes-Benz South Africa’s (MBSA’s) new Artisan Learning Centre, in East London, in March.

Part of the transformation South Africa needed to see was that artisan development was “at the core of driving an economy”.

The Learning Centre is the product of a R130-million joint investment by MBSA and the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund.

Jonas said it was important that industry and government started to create a buzz around artisan development in South Africa.

“There is no buzz. Part of our problems in higher education is that we still have a perspective that everyone must have a degree, whatever that degree may be. “We have not interrogated sufficiently the connection between having that degree and getting a job or being successful in business.”

Jonas said one part of the solution to improving artisan development in South Africa was to “rev up investment” in this field, with the second part being the realisation that the current model for artisan development was “problematic, by and large”.

“We need to review that [model].

“All over the world, successful artisan development programmes are those that are anchored within industry. So, if you still have a college mentality for artisans, you are unlikely to be successful.

“Unless we strengthen the marriage between industry and our technical and artisan development institutions, we are not going to have an impact.

“The world of work is changing and it is changing very fast. The dynamism that it requires can only be achieved by a stronger marriage between the private sector and government.”

Jonas added that one of South Africa’s “fundamental structural weaknesses” was an over-dependence on the commodity sector.”

“Commodity economies always suffer when commodity prices go down. We are in that period now and I don’t think it would be wise for us to imagine that this is a short-term cyclical problem. The situation will remain for quite a longer period than we imagine.”

Jonas said it was important that competitive export-orientated manufacturing became “the centre” of South Africa’s growth strategy, with the automotive industry pivotal to this goal.

Jonas in March dropped a political bombshell when he revealed that the Gupta family had offered him the position of Finance Minister before President Jacob Zuma sacked the then Minister, Nhlanhla Nene, in December.