Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says human resource development is a societal issue that needs to be addressed if South Africa is to move forward.

“If anyone wants to move a country forward, developing human capacity and human skills is the tool that you use. This is one of the areas of focus of the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa (HRDC SA),” he said on Friday.

Ramaphosa, who is the new chair of the HRDC, was speaking at the 15th meeting of the council at Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House, on Friday.

He said the HRDC should touch the lives and improve the prospects of South Africans living in the rural areas.

“The work of our council needs to reach more people…it needs to be extended to more areas in our country…in the rural areas and informal settlements. It must also touch the lives of more people, it must improve the prospects of many people, and it must also improve and create opportunities for the people. Our work must also make the lives of ordinary South Africans better,” he said.

He said without a rigorous, coordinated and coherent approach the council cannot effectively skill, empower and develop people to their maximum potential.

The HRDC is a national multi-tiered stakeholder advisory body established to build the human resource development base required to ensure a prosperous and inclusive South African society and economy.

It has formed partnerships with different stakeholders, including the South African Maritime Safety Authority, the National Network on Innovation, the Public Sector Trainers Work Forum and the National Skills Authority, among others, to enable the council to pursue new resources development issues vigorously.

“Evaluation and assessment has become the key pillars of how we work… how we do things and assess the progress that we are making. We also need to pay greater attention to what we need to do to mobilise all of society around the task of human resource development,” he said.

Ramaphosa said while the council is faced with an enormous task to develop human skills, the expectation of South Africans are also huge.

“They are expecting that people in leadership and in important institutions will help to address this challenge of skills development, through developing their capabilities in a way that can help to develop our country,” he said.

The Deputy President said this task is at the heart of the successful implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) which emphasise the need to develop human capabilities and human resource.

“We want to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, we want to create jobs, to accelerate economic growth and also to promote social cohesion and these are the outstanding objectives that we all have and all cherish. Developing human resource is going to be what enables us to achieve this,” he said.
According to the Deputy President, the council has achieved a lot since its inception as they are very good on basing what they do on evidence.

“It is significant that a number of recommendations adopted by the council in a number of ways are being implemented. It is an action-oriented council, seeing the practical fulfilment of the deliberations should encourage us to do more, work harder and go further,” he said.

He further said with the new administration, which promises what President Jacob Zuma ‘dubbed radical transformation’, the council has established a firm foundation for faster and more meaningful change.

“As a country, we are beginning to look at new ways and better ways of doing things. We are becoming more aware of people who are action oriented. We want to implement and do things in a meaningful way and bring about change,” he said.