A critique of South Africa's National Human Resources Development Strategies

Abstract

This article provides a critique of South Africa's two National Human Resources Development Strategies (NHRDS). It does so through the construction and utilisation of a three-fold definition of HRD. South Africa's HRD strategies fall short when measured against each of these three components. This has to do with the failure to view HRD as a cross-sectoral phenomenon characterised by several interdependent relationships spanning the education, training, industry, science, technology and labour market policy domains. The NHRDS have focused primarily on educational objectives whilst neglecting the above interdependencies. Policy failure is also a consequence of poor horizontal coordination and interdepartmental cooperation within the South African state. Finally, failure has to do with inadequate management information systems and the poor exchange of strategic intelligence between key actors across the demand-and-supply divide, and between key government departments supposedly involved in the horizontal coordination of HRD.