Strategic Leadership on Productivity
A key mandate of Productivity SA is to promote productivity in South Africa and in the last year, Productivity SA was able to significantly extend the understanding of productivity to the local and international arena. Research has found that when the economy increases its productivity levels it becomes more competitive and raises the rate of employment. Awareness of the significance of productivity in the country’s social and economic development will not only play an important role in creating a productive culture within our society, but will also contribute towards sustainable growth and the benefits in halving unemployment as identified by ASGISA. In the period in review, Productivity SA increased its productivity awareness drive to private and public organisations and the general public through innovative activities on productivity issues. Regional and international ties were also strengthened.
The activities of the Strategic Leadership on Productivity Programme were characterised by many exciting developments during 2005. For the first time, Productivity SA’s Cape Regional Office hosted the Cape Productivity Awards in support of the Western Cape Government and Cape Town Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The gold winners were automatically entered into the National Productivity Awards held annually during October. Productivity Month continued to be the highlight of our promotional activities:
PRODUCTIVITY MONTH CAMPAIGN:
 
The broad objective of this campaign was to increase awareness of the importance of productivity and position Productivity SA as the authoritative leader in promoting the productivity movement.
OVERVIEW OF EVENTS:
Finals of the National Schools’ Debates:
In its effort to create productivity awareness and build productivity mindset among young people, Productivity SA, in partnership with the National Department of Education, conducted the 2005 National Schools’ Debate competition. The final debate was held at the University of Pretoria. Clarendon Girls High School from East London emerged the winners over St Dominics College from Welkom. A Soweto learner, Tumelo Ngwako from Forte High School scooped the best overall speaker prize.
Productivity games:
The annual productivity games were held in partnership with the University of Johannesburg. Approximately 100 students from the Faculty of Business Management from four campuses participated.
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NATIONAL SCHOOLS DEBATES
Through the National Schools’ Debates, Productivity SA is actively involved in creating awareness of productivity values and concepts amongst Grade 11 learners, in partnership with the Departments of Education from the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape
The intention is to ensure that when learners eventually join the mainstream economy, they are sensitised about productivity values and concepts and their impact on the economy. This project also provides learners with an opportunity to develop life skills such as public speaking, topic presentation and self confidence. These skills are critical as learners further their studies and during their future working lives. Productivity awareness workshops for teachers and officials of the Department of Education reached 228 participants due to exceptional cooperation from Provincial Departments of Education.
A follow-up meeting was held on 3 February 2006 to develop an action plan for the next year and plan a Roundtable Conference for the Promotion of the Productivity Movement in Africa to be held in Johannesburg between 28 and 31 August 2006. The purpose of this conference is to share the experiences of Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) member countries with African partners from South Afric, Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia on the role of national productivity organizations (NPOs) in national economic development through productivity movements.
Productivity SA aimed to expose 4 000 learners to productivity concepts and values through this year’s campaign. A higher number of 5 532 was achieved as a result of an increased number of schools participating at the intra-provincial level.
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REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Productivity SA has, in the year in review, strengthened and developed its regional and international partnerships to encourage the cross-pollination of productivity initiatives. Through this collaboration it is envisaged that increased productivity awareness and skills will contribute towards socio-economic development in South Africa and beyond our borders, extending to the entire African region.
These partnerships will also assist in accelerating the government’s JIPSA and ASGISA initiatives by making enterprises more competitive and by helping to develop skills for the country’s unemployed.
PAN AFRICAN PRODUCTIVITY ASSOCIATION (PAPA):
PAPA’s core focus is to facilitate and advocate for the establishment of national productivity organisations (NPOs) on the African continent and to provide support to existing NPOs to become effective in promoting productivity awareness and contribute towards the socio economic development of the country and the region in which they operate.
As the Secretariat of PAPA, Productivity SA convened a successful Third General Assembly meeting held between 29 and 2 August 2005. A total of thirteen delegates, representing six African states attended.
KENYAN DELEGATION VISIT TO PRODUCTIVITY SA
During February, Productivity SA was pleased to host a delegation of senior Kenyan officials led by Ambassador Nancy Karui. The Kenyan delegation stressed the importance of working closely with Productivity SA to integrate productivity in all Kenya’s critical policies and practices to facilitate the country’s rapid economic growth and social development. Both parties unanimously emphasized the critical importance of staff capacity building and recommended that capacity building training be organised between the two productivity organizations.
ASIAN PRODUCTIVITY ORGANISATION
During 2005, a partnership was established between the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and Productivity SA to fast track the productivity movement within South Africa and on the African continent. This partnership developed as a result of numerous discussions between Productivity SA and the APO and a visit from a delegation from Japan during September 2005. The delegation comprised members from the APO, Japanese Productivity Centre JPC-SED, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade and Industry. The objective of the visit was to gain first hand information about the state of productivity within the country, as well as discuss possible partnering areas. As a result, the APO will share technical expertise with Productivity SA to build staff capacity within the productivity field in the next three years.
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