THABO MASHONGOANE: WHY SKILLS MUST LEAD THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA
- BEE NEWS
- May 29
- 3 min read
Thabo Mashongoane | 28 May 2025
The employment equity regulations can be seen as a catalyst for investment, in people, institutions and long-term prosperity.
SA has reached a critical moment in its transformation journey. The newly gazetted employment equity (EE) regulations — designed to increase representation across sectors by 2030 — mark an important step towards a more inclusive economy. But achieving these ambitious targets will require more than compliance checklists or short-term fixes. It demands a deep and sustained investment in skills development.
After more than 40 years in vocational education and training — and as someone who began their own career as an artisan — I’ve seen that transformation not rooted in skills is unsustainable. Equity cannot exist in a vacuum. It must be underpinned by a deliberate, co-ordinated approach to workforce development, especially in technically demanding sectors such as mining and manufacturing.
For companies navigating the EE landscape the starting point should be a robust human resource development strategy. This means going beyond demographic targets to assess training pipelines, internal capacity and future role readiness. EE cannot be reduced to hiring statistics — it must be about enabling South Africans to grow within their roles and industries.
At the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA) our learnerships, internships and artisan development programmes are delivering real results. Feedback from the Minerals Council SA and other stakeholders confirms that our interventions are helping mines improve productivity, accelerate onboarding and, crucially, reduce workplace incidents. When workers are properly trained — both theoretically and practically — safety improves, and so does operational performance. This is not abstract policy; it’s a lived reality in mining operations across the country.
Admittedly, the EE targets present a challenge — particularly in industries historically shaped by exclusion. In many eyes mining remains a male-dominated and physically demanding space. But that’s changing. Automation, digitisation and innovation are redefining work on the ground. Roles once reliant on strength now require analytical and digital expertise. This shift creates an opportunity to welcome more women, people with disabilities and youth into the sector — not as token hires but as geologists, engineers and safety specialists equipped to lead the industry forward.
That’s why the technical & vocational education & training (TVET) system is so critical to our future. At MQA we invest more than R250,000 annually to support students in TVET institutions. And yet vocational education continues to be seen as second-tier to university pathways. This mindset must shift. For every engineer in the mining value chain the sector needs up to 15 artisans. These are the people who keep operations running, maintain safety standards and apply innovations in real time. Elevating TVET colleges, properly resourcing them and embedding them in workforce planning is not just good policy, it’s a national imperative.
Transformation will not be achieved in silos. Meeting the 2030 EE targets requires co-ordination across government, industry, the Sector Education & Training Authorities (Setas), and educational institutions. Encouragingly, platforms like the Seta Sectoral Integrated Human Resource Development Strategy are beginning to bridge these divides, allowing knowledge and capacity to flow across sectors. For smaller employers without the infrastructure to develop talent pipelines alone, these kinds of partnerships will be essential.
At MQA our mission is not only to drive demographic change, it’s to build competence, safety and dignity across the mining workforce. Our vision is a responsive system that understands the evolving demands of the sector, prepares workers for modern roles, and reduces the human cost of undertraining.
Let us not view the new EE regulations as a compliance burden. Let us embrace them as a catalyst for investment, in people, institutions and long-term prosperity.
When transformation is powered by skills it moves from a policy goal to a lived economic reality.
‘Disclaimer - The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the BEE CHAMBER’.