Minister Davies’ failure to act on SABS is threatening jobs and growth
26 June 2018
Today, in an oversight visit I conducted at the South Africa Bureau of Standards (SABS) together with my colleague, Ghaleb Cachalia MP, where we met management and were taken through the organisation’s operational facilities, we uncovered details of an organisation at war with itself, a toxic relationship between the CEO and employees, obsolete standardisation equipment and lack of direction from the board.
Minister Rob Davies is doing a disservice to hundreds of manufacturers who have lost R4 billion in potential revenue due to SABS’s dysfunctional standardisation process, and associated jobs that could have been created, by continuing to entertain submissions by the SABS board on why they should not be dismissed.
The truth is, the SABS board and management have failed the manufacturing industry’s job creation focus and must be dismissed immediately. They are responsible for failing to implement a turnaround strategy for the past 10 years because of poor planning, leading to the mass exodus of clients in the past two years.
The toxic relationship that exists between employees and management, under CEO Boni Mehlomakulu, has seen 108 staff members take the organisation to the CCMA. This has had a negative knock on effect on productivity and cannot be allowed to continue.