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After 11 weeks of rioting by students over a plethora of complaints, an artisans’ academy in Mpumalanga this week resumed its training programmes.
Students at Mshiniwami Artisan Training Academy in Secunda have staged a number of violent protests since June 22 after management and the Mpumalanga government failed to address their grievances.
The academy was on the brink of shutting down for good – which would spell disaster for thousands of unemployed youngsters, who are being trained to be boilermakers and welders.
The academy was established in 2015 in a public-private partnership.
The partnership is between Hydra Arc – a company specialising in pressure vessel and piping fabrication, construction, refinery maintenance, tooling and equipment in the petrochemical, mining, power-generation and construction industries – and the Mpumalanga department of education’s section 21 company, the Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust.
Hydra Arc won a five-year tender to train 5 000 artisans by 2019.
The department spends R130 million a year on tuition fees, accommodation, stipends, meals and equipment, while Hydra Arc invested R60 million for the building and equipment.
The main purpose of the project is to address skills shortages and place 1 000 artisans in the job market each year.
According to Stats SA, the province’s youth unemployment rate stood at 41% in June last year.
The training programme came to a grinding halt when the students, backed by the Economic Freedom Fighters, alleged that:
- They were not allocated the Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority registration numbers, and their statement of results did not reflect such;
- Modules for the boilermakers were designed by the moderator of the welding course;
- All students were told they could chose between training in boilermaking and welding, but they were all doing boilermaking;
- The academy accepted three times the agreed number of 500 students a year;
- Students were taken to Sasol for experiential training, where they were forced to do jobs that they were not trained to do, and were still paid the R1 700 stipend a month even though they worked 12 hours a day;
- Some staff members were not qualified; and
- Students were harassed by risk management officers and they lacked some equipment for their training.
One of the student leaders, Portia Matshika, was escorted off the academy’s premises last week and has since been suspended.
“I was kicked out because I was told I’m an instigator of the riots and I’m dangerous,” Matshika said.
City Press understands that Matshika was the only student leader who was suspended.
Hydra Arc CEO Dimitri van der Westhuizen said the students had apologised for their “spurious” claims, and had accused their leaders of giving them incorrect feedback after their meetings.
Van der Westhuizen dismissed all the students’ complaints as lies. He said Matshika had been suspended following video evidence of violence.
“I’ve shown them documents of everything, including their registration numbers. Only 112 of the 1 352 students participated in the protests. We had agreed on a number of issues, but most of them sat in the sun without raising any new issues,” he said.
“Some politicians, unfortunately, turned the academy into a political football match. As Hydra Arc, we’re interested in skilling South Africans because we’re tired of plum jobs being given to foreign-based and owned companies. We’re not making any profit and we costed and priced the project at breakeven level, but there are quirks that cause losses … but we’re still going on,” said Van der Westhuizen.
Mpumalanga education spokesperson Jasper Zwane also dismissed the students’ allegations.
“Everything is fine there. They have all their registration documents and the courses are accredited.”
