Rashid Toefy: Change is needed at high school level to grow South Africa's economy

December 15, 2022

Following the Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) hosted by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week, Deputy Director-General at the Western Cape Government's Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Rashid Toefy, said change is needed at a high school level to grow South Africa’s economy.

As part of the PPD campaign, a range of workshops relating to skills development, innovation and other economic pillars encouraged collaboration between the public and private sectors to improve the economy in the Western Cape.

“I think we need skills at various levels… I think we need to start right at high school level and make sure we are working with the Department of Education here in the Western Cape to change the curriculum at that level,” said Toefy.

“This will ensure that people emerge with the right technical skills either to study the appropriate thing or to go straight out there and create an enterprise.

“And I think we are pretty clear what critical skills the country needs,” he said.

Toefy added that the appropriate skills are needed in industries that are going to allow the Western Cape and South Africa as a whole to become an export-led economy in a bid to attract foreign direct investment and ultimately grow the GDP.

Meanwhile, he expressed his excitement to be part of the dialogue between public and private sectors and said the conversation to collaborate was long overdue.

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“The power of the Cape Chamber's Public-Private Dialogue is to hear directly what the concerns businesses are facing and how we can as government, at all levels, create solutions that are going to be making it easier for people to do business in our economy,” said Toefy.

“Sometimes hearing the combined issues that are faced by various businesses makes it easier for us to focus on what it is that needs to be changed to make business flow and thrive,” he said.