Bantu education reared its ugly head recently when Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said the education system today is no better than that under the Apartheid regime. And while this point is debateable the Act itself was introduced in 1953 and seen as one of Apartheid’s most offensive racist laws. Many saw it as a means to direct black or non-white youth to the unskilled labour market. Biznews contributor Patrick Kuwana says South Africa is still paying the price for this system – there’s a huge void of the human capital required to grow a knowledge-based economy. He extends his discussion to the legacy of colonial education systems across Africa, which like Bantu education, were never designed to produce entrepreneurs, creative thinkers and leaders, but rather workers, conformists and subservient followers. – Stuart Lowman
By Patrick Kuwana*
The major issue the rating agencies have with South Africa is stalled economic growth. “South Africa’s fiscal budget for 2016 lacks significant policy announcements that will spur GDP growth, or provide enough business confidence” (Standard & Poor’s). So what is the root cause for this stalled economic growth?
Could the South African economy be paying the price for the inferior Bantu education system that most South African’s had to go through?
For sustainable growth to take place a country has to multiply its economic output and assets by effectively applying as much of its human capital as possible to this task. (The more a country’s population is involved in economic production, the more chance it has of sustained growth). One of the most damaging aspects of South Africa’s oppressive segregated system of the past is that it denied millions the opportunity to not only participate in the ownership of economic assets but even more damaging was the inferior Bantu education system imposed on them. It’s important to make this next point very clear – all people irrespective of racial, tribal or ethnic background have been created with exactly the same potential for acquiring intelligence and ability, but this latent potential is only unlocked through the accessibility and availability of good education, opportunities and hard work. The Bantu education system denied multiple generations of families the opportunity to quality education which in turn denied them the opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills and experience in non-labour intensive vocations. This has left SA with a huge void of the human capital that is required to grow a knowledge based economy.
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Bantu education and in fact the majority of legacy colonial education systems across Africa were never designed to produce entrepreneurs, creative thinkers and leaders, but rather workers, conformists and subservient followers. It’s important to understand history, but it’s even more important to learn from it and build solutions to overcome the shortcomings of that history. Understanding the past helps diagnose the cause of root problems, but dwelling in that past or using it as a source of fuelling division is completely counter-productive. This is a primary constraint that has hampered progress in Africa.
A transformational case study to learn from is Rwanda, which two decades ago was a blood bath of genocide but is now experiencing one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. Two foundational lessons from Rwanda are (1) their commitment to reconciliation between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s and (2) the decision to reform their education system by introducing entrepreneurship, vocational skills development and leadership into their curriculum starting at primary school level.
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Unfortunately the legacy of segregation automatically and unfortunately requires race to be brought into the South African solution building narrative thus making it an explosively emotional issue, but one that has to be dealt with to ensure a positive long term future for all races. Discarding and losing the small percentage of people (whites) from the marketplace who have the skills and experience is leading the country down the wrong path, likewise restricting access to people (blacks) who require skills and platforms to develop experience is equally detrimental. The right balance has to be found.
The key role players (business, government, labour and education) need to build platforms that are conducive for skills transfer to take place in an environment that safe guards the future of those sharing their skills (whites). This can be done by putting incentive mechanisms in place to provide opportunities for them to offer their skills to industry based vocational skills development and on the job mentorship and coaching programs where their skills can contribute to empowering those previously denied opportunity to acquire those skills and experience (blacks). This collaborative co-creation ecosystem will ensure that all the available human capital in the country is put to productive use while simultaneously multiplying the new pool of skills in the country in a way that produces economic benefit for both sides of the equation. This could be the most effective platform for national reconciliation to take place in an environment that allows all people groups to work together in co-creating an inclusive economy where all can work and create wealth for their families and for the nation.
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The solution framework also requires that economic assets be made available to the equipped and empowered skills force (blacks) so that they can have the opportunity to participate in the growth of the economic assets of the nation. As skills are acquired it is imperative that the ownership of economic resources is also intentionally made accessible and available to those who were previously denied this access. This process of economic resource balancing is central to the future survival of most industries and businesses in SA.
South Africa will most likely not show increased growth by the time the ratings agencies review the country again in December, but it can certainly put a sustainable strategy in place to explain and address the root issues so that in years to come real wealth and prosperity can be built for all.
- Patrick Kuwana is founder and CEO of Crossover Transformation Group. You can contact him at [email protected]. You can also find him on twitter @kuwanapatrick
