The scarcity of qualified and experienced engineers in municipalities across the Eastern Cape Province will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the multimillion rand skills development partnership deal signed between the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and the National Treasury.
This Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality initiated programme has won three national awards (South African National Energy Association, CIGRE an international organization, AMEU Southern Africa) and also an award from Rotary Port Elizabeth.
The partnership was officially announced at a press conference at the Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre in Uitenhage on Tuesday, 10 January.
The NMBM is the only municipality in the province that has the capacity and the resources to partner with National Treasury to develop the skills of unemployed graduates from across the province. The National Treasury is funding the programme through its Infrastructure Skills Delivery Grant, a grant that ensures that the funding goes directly toward improving infrastructure.
The graduate programme will ensure that the graduates develop their technical knowledge, which will allow them to register as professionals with the engineering professional bodies.
On completion of the programme, these trainees will be expected to put their knowledge and skills to good use in municipalities across the Eastern Cape Province.
The NMBM’s Electricity and Energy Directorate was the first to start with the programme, and were allocated R6 million from National Treasury which will pay for the salaries of mentors and trainers, and also ensuring that accredited training programmes are administered.
This partnership follows a very successful programme already run within the NMBM, whereby National Treasury funds the employment of financial management interns who are based at the NMBM for a period of three years.
The NMBM currently employs 18 interns in financial management, who are gaining integral experience in a local government environment.
Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Cllr Zanoxolo Wayile, was extremely excited at the prospect of yet again partnering with National Treasury to develop the skills of young people.
“With the challenges that we face, we had to put together all the resources at our disposal for the benefit of our children and generations to come. I am excited about this programme and we commit to working with other municipalities to shift the backlog we have as a province,” said Mayor Wayile.
Mayor Wayile called on the private sector to partner with the NMBM and other spheres of government in initiatives of similar nature. He revealed that the NMBM will host an Education Summit in February where government departments, private sector and non-government organisations will meet to discuss challenges facing education and the skills development in the city.
As part of the NMBM’s back to school campaign, Deputy Executive Mayor, Cllr Nancy Sihlwayi, handed over 10 000 lap desks to the Department of Education to be distributed to needy schools in the city.
Until the end of January, the Education Task Team set up by the NMBM will engage in back to school campaigns across the city.
A very important part of the Back to School campaign is a school uniform collection drive. The NMBM is pleading to all residents, stakeholders, parents, school children and municipal officials to please donate old school uniforms and school shoes to give to those in need. Residents who would like to hand in uniforms and school shoes can hand it in Bay TV, Bay FM, Nkqubela FM, Kingfisher FM, IFM and at the Port Elizabeth City Hall Bongani at the Executive Mayor’s Office.
The political leadership of the city will be divided into clusters to mobilise communities to become part of the Back to School programme.
