Skills shortage pits regulators against business for staff
May 29, 2007
By Tonny Mafu
Johannesburg - South Africa's regulators are feeling the skills shortage pinch. This emerged from interviews with Business Report where regulators said the scarcity of specialist skills was their Achilles heel.
Dube Tshidi, the deputy executive officer at the Financial Services Board (FSB), which oversees more than 13 000 non-bank institutions, said the regulator had the "required number" of staff but it "struggled" to get "quality" experts.
Tshidi said the FSB competed with the industry for the same scarce skills, but the competition offered better pay.
In a recent economic cluster report, trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said strengthening regulator capacity would be a top priority.
According to Ravi Naidoo, the head of economic research and policy co-ordination at the trade and industry department, regulation is meant to cut costs and enhance competition by creating space for small firms.
But Tembinkosi Bonakele, the compliance manager at the competition commission, said the regulator was sometimes unable to match the resources of companies that came before it.
This woe was echoed by Jubie Matlou of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa). "We need specialists such as economists ... who can track the industry."
While Icasa would be better off doing research in-house, it was sourcing industry information from consultants.
Tony Twine, a director at Econometrix, said regulations had "proliferated" in the post-apartheid era but the ability to enforce new laws had diminished. Law makers might have to simplify the regulations.
But Tshidi said the problem was not the complexity of legislation but the industry players that looked for cracks.
DA attacks 'seven sins' of Mpahlwa
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday launched a seven-pronged attack on trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa, accusing him of being inadequate for his post and calling for his annual salary to be reduced to 1c.
DA spokesperson Pierre Rabie said seven key matters in his portfolio had been botched: the awarding of the lottery licence, delays in appointing lottery distribution agencies, Chinese import quotas, 14-month lag in a national industrial policy, no action to promote small businesses, no vision for development finance reforms and inaction in international trade talks. - Michael Hamlyn
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