South Africa has voted. Now comes the challenge of forming coalitions that can govern. Gary Silbermann explores why the decisions made in council chambers could influence where businesses invest, which teams they build and whether graduates get their first opportunity.
South Africa has voted. And with so many municipalities now facing coalition negotiations, the next few weeks will tell us a great deal about what local government might look like for the next five years.
From where I sit in technology recruitment, there’s another question worth asking. Will the agreements made in council chambers give businesses enough confidence to invest, expand and create jobs?
You might wonder what any of this has to do with a computer science graduate trying to land their first job. Quite a lot, actually.
Where would you build your next Software Engineering team?
Imagine you’re running a technology business and considering where to build your next engineering team. Naturally, you’ll look at the availability of skills, salary expectations and the cost of doing business, but if you’re planning to establish a team that will be there for the next five years, you’ll also want to know whether the city can support that investment.
Can your people get to work reliably? Can you depend on basic services? Are infrastructure improvements actually happening? And when the municipality commits to something, can you trust that commitment to survive the next political disagreement?
These are all reasonable questions for any business to ask.
When the answers are uncertain, expanding becomes a harder decision to justify. Plans get delayed, investment goes elsewhere and roles that might have been created don’t even make it to a job advert. I believe this is something we don’t talk about enough.
We tend to measure employment through jobs advertised, vacancies filled and unemployment figures, but it’s much harder to measure the opportunities that never materialise because a business decided the time wasn’t right to invest.
Technology work doesn't have to stay in one place
The latest IITPSA ICT Skills Survey offers an interesting perspective.
It found that 51.9% of surveyed organisations already outsource some of their IT functions to overseas providers. Skills shortages, cost and access to specialist expertise are among the reasons.
These decisions have several drivers, but the finding is a useful reminder that technology businesses have options about where work gets done. For South Africa, that makes creating an environment where companies want to invest all the more important.
And while the local government cannot solve every challenge facing the economy, it has a meaningful role to play in making its towns and cities attractive places to build a business and invest in the local people.
Why does this matter for graduates?
When a company has an urgent project to deliver, the hiring conversation usually centres on finding someone who can contribute immediately. Often, that’s an experienced engineer or contractor who can get up to speed quickly and deliver within a tight timeframe. But when a business has confidence in its longer-term plans, it has more room to think about the team it wants to build over several years. That can include permanent engineering roles, graduate programmes and opportunities for experienced developers to mentor people entering the profession.
And we desperately need more of those opportunities.
The latest IITPSA survey also found that employers consider a lack of workplace experience the biggest contributor to South Africa’s ICT skills gap, ahead of shortcomings in education and training. Think about that for a moment.
"We're facing a shortage of technology skills, yet one of the biggest barriers to developing those skills is that people can't get the practical experience they need."
Anyone who has tried to land their first technology role will know the frustration. Employers want experience, but someone has to give you the opportunity to gain it.
That’s why long-term workforce planning matters. Graduate development takes time, experienced mentors and a business willing to invest in people whose contribution will grow over the years. Confidence in the future makes those commitments easier to justify.
So, what should we expect from coalition partners?
I’d argue that the opportunity in front of coalition leaders is bigger than simply agreeing on who gets which position. It’s also about whether political parties with different priorities can agree on a few fundamentals that businesses and communities can depend on.
The basics, pass municipal budgets on time, keep infrastructure projects moving, appoint capable officials to build confidence. Set clear service delivery targets and make progress visible to the people who live and work there.
These aren’t particularly glamorous commitments, but they make a difference to how confidently businesses can plan.
Of course, employers also have a responsibility and if we want to address the shortage of experienced technology professionals, more businesses need to create opportunities for graduates and junior talent to develop. Giving those employers greater confidence to make long-term investments, in my opinion, is a sensible place to start.
The real test of political leadership
Coalition politics will always involve disagreement, it’s the nature of parties with different priorities trying to govern together. The real test comes when a good proposal is put forward by a political opponent and whether leaders can recognise its value, support it and defend that decision to their own supporters?
A functioning municipality benefits everyone who depends on it, including the businesses considering where to invest and the people hoping those investments will create employment.
For a graduate trying to get a foot in the door, it matters very little which political party gets the credit. It matters a great deal whether that first job exists.
Planning to grow your engineering team?
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