South Africa - DA, EFF Slam Free State for Employing Cubans

South Africa: DA, EFF Slam Free State for Employing Cubans
By Dirk Lotriet, News24

Opposition parties have reacted in disgust to the Free State
government's decision to employ 38 Cuban engineers.

Both the DA and the EFF have interpreted the announcement at the
provincial headquarters of the ANC as a slap in the face of local engineers.

DA Provincial leader Roy Jankielsohn said Free State Premier Ace
Magashule's administration had a crop of locally qualified professionals
to choose from.

"If Ace Magashule and the ANC were keen on creating jobs for unemployed
South Africans, his government could have employed any of the about 500
qualified, experienced, and unemployed engineers in the country.

"Magashule claims his government had to employ these engineers from Cuba
because South Africans do not possess the requisite skills. This
mentality is the worst sort of insult to South Africans," he said.

Jankielsohn also accused Magashule and the ANC of acting as labour
brokers for Cuba.

EEF provincial chair Kgotso Morapela said his party appreciated the role
and the contribution of Cuba during South Africa's trying times, and
believed that through Cuba the province could learn many lessons in
addressing the triple challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty.

But he added that it was "really dishonest and unappreciative towards
the engineering fraternity in our province".

'Vote of no confidence'

"What we saw and heard yesterday is a vote of no confidence to the
institutions of higher learning in our province and a spit in the face
of many engineers who are without jobs, by the Free State government."

"We know that some of those who are qualified engineers are moving to
other provinces where there are greener pastures and where their skills
are well appreciated, because their own Free State government is not
recognising their engineering skills," Morapela said.

He said if the Free State government was really caring, they should be
working closely with the institutions of higher learning and the private
engineering companies to have service-level agreements, whereby students
could be taken by these companies for training.

"The money to be spent on the Cuban engineers can be channelled to the
programme of experiential training for the students.

"We know that they will never dare to capacitate the students who are
not going to be loyal to them, they rather run to those who know little
about our province and cannot question anything."

Source: allAfrica.com: South Africa: DA, EFF Slam Free State for
Employing Cubans - http://allafrica.com/stories/201505261822.html