Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity has called the Free State government’s appointment of 48 Cuban engineers a disgrace.
The engineers were appointed to assist mainly rural municipalities in the province to improve service delivery, through construction of houses, water and sanitation and project management.
But Dirk Groenewald, head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices, said that by appointing the Cubans, the ANC showed it would “rather appoint foreigners than their own people”.
In a statement, the union said “the state’s obsession with race and race representivity is to blame for poor service delivery; not a shortage of competent and qualified workers in the country”.
“It is a disgrace that the ANC and the government appoint foreigners rather than utilising the services of the citizens of South-Africa. These appointments will merely ensure that qualified, unemployed South Africans will be further alienated by the governing party,” Groenewald said.
But Senne Bogatsu, spokeswoman for the Free State Cooperative Governance Department said it previously struggled to retain engineers in the mainly rural municipalities where the Cubans would be posted.
Further, some of those who were interviewed for the positions declined the posts due to the government’s inability to meet their expected salary packages, she said.
“Also, the skill is rare, in demand and private sector packages are more attractive than government (in terms of) opportunities and career growth. In contrast to South African engineers, it is easier to assign Cuban engineers to any part of the province,” Bogatsu said.
She said the engineers from Cuba brought specialised knowledge in hydraulics, geology and project management.
“Their advantage is that Cuban Engineers tend to specialise more than South African engineers, for example, specialised hydraulics engineers, geologists and project managers and architects.
Labour Bureau