Letter: Outsourcing creates jobs, skilled staff

I READ The Herald article, “Blacks need larger stake in private sector, Rustenburg crowd hears” (January 11). How do Jacob Zuma and his partners, namely Cosatu and SACP, expect to create jobs in the private sector when they are preventing or want to do away with outsourcing? It is the big companies and organisations, like the metros, who can outsource lots of their functions to smaller companies who are specialised in that particular function and deliver a better service. Thus this creates an environment where there is an opportunity for blacks to have a greater stake in private business. Outsourcing creates specialised skills and creates development in business. Take for example a small company specialising in cleaning. It has 100 employees, with five employees each working at 20 different small companies doing cleaning. If they were employed by that particular company, first that company would not train them because it is not its core business (it doesn’t have a manager/manpower to train five staff members).

A company selling new cleaning products/services will not call on these companies either as they are too small, so newest technology is lost to employees. The workers would remain mop and broom pushers, and be kept at the bottom of the chain all their lives! Now if they work for a company that specialises in cleaning, there is potential for training and cost to train is much less. The manager in charge of them can get training in the latest cleaning technologies and materials. This knowledge can then be passed on to the workers quickly and effectively, and they can then grow themselves and then move up the ranks to become managers, then start small companies themselves, as they have gained knowledge and experience by working for a company where there’s actually room for advancement! Outsourcing is not the big bad boy, but rather creates workers who can be skilled and trained, then take part in the private sector, as the ANC wishes. It is time that the metros start outsourcing to create good jobs in the private sector, advance the small black businessman and deliver better services to the community.