Productivity SA awards Western Cape organisations
The entity responsible for promoting productivity within South Africa, Productivity SA, held an awards ceremony to recognise the winners of the Western Cape Regional Productivity Awards yesterday, the 31st August 2015 at the NH Lord Charles Hotel, Somerset West, Cape Town.
The awards are intended at recognising organisations making significant contributions towards making South Africa a productive country. Through awarding these organisations, which are from the public, private and emerging sectors, Productivity SA aims to encourage other organisations to strive to be productive and globally competitive.
The CEO of Productivity SA, Mr. Bongani Coka, says as the country’s fight against unemployment intensifies, it is through organisations like the finalists that poverty can be holistically tackled. The aim and objectives of Productivity SA are to improve productivity and competitiveness in the workplace throughout South Africa. These awards seek to recognise individuals, organisations and communities for their contributions to building South Africa’s productive capacity.
The regional awards provide a platform to inspire a competitive and productive South Africa. Productivity improvement is considered the most effective way of ensuring ongoing competitiveness, economic growth and, consequently, more wealth for all.
All South Africans (not only workers in the formal sector) are central to this process. South Africa currently faces major challenges, for example how to create employment opportunities, stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty. If South Africa is to reduce unemployment and poverty, and increase its economic growth, its emphasis should be on developing productive capacity in all sectors of the economy.
There is a need to focus on critical growth sectors and on making our enterprises more competitive. Moreover, there is an urgent need to address job creation and ensure that previously neglected sectors have access to knowledge, skills, resources and technology. The Productivity SA Awards seek to galavanise companies into adopting productivity as a fundamental tool to be more competitive. Productivity SA was created in 1969 as the then National Productivity Institute (NPI) and it focused on;
Providing assistance to individual companies in their productivity improvement programs.
Creating productivity awareness through information services, general seminars, study missions, publicity, etc.
Conducting research in the field of productivity and related matters.
Promoting training and education through specific programs and by assisting the relevant authorities to ensure that the final products of training are productive people who match the needs of the job market.
Productivity SA has grown to develop various tools and models that includes measurement tools that determines to what extent an organisation’s financial performance is influenced by price recovery and productivity.
The National Productivity Awards were launched in 1979 and since then the awards have grown to become one of the most prestigious awards for business endeavors in South Africa. Through showcasing the productivity successes of the represented companies, Productivity SA is striving to encourage other organisations to increase their productivity and competitiveness thereby contributing to the country‘s economic growth.
The Chairperson of the Productivity SA board, Mthunzi Mdwaba says, the regional awards provide a platform to inspire a competitive and productive South Africa. Mdwaba said productivity improvement is considered the most effective way of ensuring ongoing competitiveness, economic growth and, consequently, more wealth for all. The board chairperson reiterated that all South Africans (not only workers in the formal sector) are central to this process.
he Regional Manager for Western Cape, Albert Brink says these are model organisations from whom others can learn and strive for greater heights towards the overall better performance of South Africa’s economy”.
The Western Cape Regional Productivity Awards winners are:
Emerging Sector: Gasket & Shim (Pty) Ltd
Public Sector: Department of Community Safety – Western Cape Government
Cooperative Sector: Fingerprint Co op
Corporate Sector: K-Way Manufacturers (Pty) Ltd