Transnet wants to expand its current workforce with at least 20 000 employees by the year 2022, providing that they have the necessary scarce skills needed to take the company forward into the digital era and beyond.
“We don’t want machines to take over the work of our employees, but we want to see a skill transfer from our workers to the new world of Transnet, where there will be a huge focus on science and mathematics, “says Transnet Chief Executive Siyabonga Gama.
According to him, it will be up to every Transnet employee to grab the opportunity to make the most of this new challenge by making use of Transnet bursaries which will enhance their skills. Currently Transnet has almost 600 students studying in the field of engineering.
“I am not shy to pay a person who comes up with good ideas and that satisfies our customers. If you can give the company your pound of flesh, we will give you ours,” says Gama.
He believes that customer satisfaction is the centre of everything that Transnet does. “Each employee must consider a customer as your wife, your spouse.”
The United National Transport Union (UNTU) is very excited about the Transnet of the Future, Transnet 4.0, explained by Gama yesterday, as it will create growth and job enrichment for the company, the broader South African economy and Africa, says Steve Harris, General Secretary of the Union.
Gama explained that Transnet wants to grow its services and the countries where it delivers services and expand the pond where it fishes throughout the digital transition.
“Transnet must be responsive to its growing young customer needs. They want real time information and want to cut costs. That is why technological revolution stand on the brink of greatness. We need to establish new markets and to provide them with new services and products. For that we need a new business model for the next 20 to 30 years,” says Gama.
According to Mike Fonucchi, Chief Customer Officer, Transnet wants to achieve a R100 billion turnover by 2022. “We need to focus on long term planning.”
Makano Mosidi, Chief Information Officer of Transnet, explained that Transnet has lots of access to data, but without the means to mine this, it means nothing. “Our future will not be determined on how well we understand our customers, but on how well we are able to analyse and predict to them. They don’t want us to give them the information they already have, they want us to give them the information they need going forward.”
“If we say that goods will reach a customer within a specified time frame, it should. It will be no use in running a system that is not trustworthy and dependable.”
Thamsanqa Jiyane, Chief Officer of Advanced Manufacturing (Transnet Engineering), says the company is doing away with the old “moer and soek” way of finding a fault. “We now have an advanced fault-finding system, which creates a huge opportunity for private partnerships.
“Transnet Engineering is the home of development within Transnet and that is why we need to invest in the research and development of our employees, so that we can maintain international competitiveness. The future belongs to those who dare to dream,” says Jiyane.
The Transnet Indaba continues.
Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Media and Liaison Officer. For UNTU Press Statements phone 082 463 6806 or e-mail sonja@untu.co.za.
