[Take careful note of the statement below: “local employment practices are making it difficult to fill vacancies that are currently available”. This is a veiled reference to Racial Quotas enforced by the Government which means that 70% or so of jobs must go to blacks. Any company that does not work within these racial quotas can get huge fines. The minimum fine is R500,000.

About 90% of the the computer industry in S.Africa is made up mostly of White males. There are many jobs… but Whites can’t get them. I speak from experience because I also did contract work as did most of my co-workers… and my co-workers battle to get jobs – regardless of how good their experience is. In fact… many of my co-workers are actually giving up their work in the computer industry and are looking for other sectors/skills which they can move in to. It is ridiculous to lose such technically proficient people which most other countries on the planet are importing… But in South Africa, an accomplished White Male has a very bleak outlook… even when there are jobs… because he is told up front: “Sorry, you can’t have this… it is an Affirmative Action position and only blacks may apply.” In reality… there are virtually no blacks who have the skills… and so these jobs just sit there… with THOUSANDS of Whites who are qualified, and unemployed… but they are not allowed to apply for them.

Meanwhile for blacks… it is fun… Any black with even the vaguest… most worthless skills… can have a field day… hopping from one job to another getting paid enormous amounts… for doing nothing… but just because his skin is black.

At least whites… ALWAYS… even under Apartheid… had working skills and actually CONTRIBUTED… Whereas… blacks have few technical skills… and they do not have a natural aptitude for this kind of work… So they sit around… doing very little … capable of little… but… they get hired and paid because they are black. Jan]

‘IT skills drought’ in SA

An IT industry expert says South Africa looks unable to fill many of the vacancies currently on offer in the industry despite the huge demand.

Johannesburg – While the UK’s quarterly information technology (IT) skills index reveals demand for permanent and contractor IT personnel increased by 23% and 14% respectively in the fourth quarter, South Africa looks unable to fill many of the vacancies currently on offer in the industry.

IT recruitment company Abacus Recruitment CEO Org Geldenhuys noted on Tuesday that the local employment practices are “making it difficult to fill vacancies that are currently available”.

However, all indications are that the local industry is on a rise, he added.

This was in sync with the generally positive business sentiment currently prevailing in South Africa.

In the UK, research reveals that Office, SQL and Oracle remain the most sought after skills in the IT contractor market.

SQL, JAVA and Office were the most popular skills for permanent IT staff in the fourth quarter last year.

“In South Africa SQL remains fairly popular, but there is more demand for Java and .Net skills. But, right now, it seems like Java is taking the lead,” Geldenhuys continued.

“Interestingly enough, while there is a lot of talk about the growing importance of open source software, we are not seeing – certainly in our domain – a big demand for Linux.

“In fact, demand for Linux is rather muted.”

Date: Feb 08 2005 01:20:57:967PM
Source: Finance24
URL: http://www.finance24.com/Finance/Companies/0,…/p>