Jimmy Manyi—A Primer by tim-beck

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· @tim-beck ·
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Jimmy Manyi—A Primer
***Jimmy Manyi is a controversial South African figure who just keeps messing up, now more than ever***

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![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVTJBFwCkDufWZavWvuRHUqqj6nJoQE1StzPHGpbwGgeF/image.png)
*Jimmy Manyi. [Image source](https://www.flickr.com/photos/governmentza/8369346885/in/photostream/)*
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Race-obsessed mampara
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Jimmy, or Mzwanele as he now likes to be called, Manyi is a serial *mampara*. If you don't know what that means, here a is a [definition](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/mampara):

> ##mampara
> noun Southern African informal
> 1. a foolish person, idiot
> 2. obsolete an incompetent worker

Yup, that's our Jimmy, a serial winner of the Sunday Times Mampara of the Week, well deserved. He has kept South Africans entertained/appalled for many years now.

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The central plank of Jimmy's offering is his obsessing with racial “equity”, to the point of absurdity.  His absurdity has grown to new outlandish heights recently, but to keep you in suspense, here is a primer on the little fellow. I promise, the suspense will be broken tomorrow, by which time it could get even more absurd.

Into the archives
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Here is an extract from a ReasonCheck blog post, 28 August 2009, titled *Race obsession leading South Africa to ruin*:

 I attended a talk given by Manyi some months ago and left feeling revolted by the extreme racial profiling he and his organisation promote. His ideas sound as if they come from some crazy nineteenth-century racial theorist.  Employment equity is apparently not about trying to find a reasonable balance of affirmative action and scarce skills. It is about strict racial quotas, with females and disabled people also get a look-in. And it's not only about blacks and whites either. No, every shade of skin has to be classified and have a quota.

Only race matters to Manyi. Not the content of people's characters. Not their intelligence, or general knowledge. Nor their education or experience. Not their work ethic, presentation skills, management ability, interpersonal skills, vision, insight, creativity, diligence, energy, temperament, leadership qualities, technical skills or loyalty. No—just race. And certainly not competence. In fact, competence is seen as a negative because it reflects badly on the great majority of people who are not competent to do a specific job.

*The architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, would have been proud of him.*

So what if you can't find enough suitably qualified people to fill certain jobs—simply change the definition of “skilled”. To Manyi, a skill is something you can learn on the job just so long as you show some potential. An example he gave was that of Hamilton Naki, [famous heart-transplant pioneering surgeon] Chris Barnard's so-called “assistant”. This primary school-educated vivisection lab cleaner and janitor, Manyi asserts, would have been a heart surgeon the equal of Barnard but for being Black. To be sure, Naki's story is an inspiring one—but working around a heart surgeon does not qualify you to become a learn-on-the-job surgeon—no matter what colour you are. Would you allow yourself to be operated on by such a surgeon? Would you drive over a bridge designed by a kerbside welder who “learnt” engineering on the job?

Manyi's tinkering with the definition of “skill” leads him to say that the skills shortage is “a myth”. And this is leading South African down a very dangerous path. We've already seen how the deployment of these types of “skills” to run government departments and state-owned enterprises have lead to full-scale failure and dysfunction of most of these institutions. It justifies the minister of labour to furiously threaten private companies with a “revolution”. It shields incompetence and inefficiency behind a protective wall of racial guilt.

It also costs a great deal of money as poor management simply squanders the nation's wealth. Eskom has just posted an R9.7 billion loss, after making R33.5 billion in profit the five years previously. And it's put down to sheer bad management. It is a management that is totally out of its depth and yet rewards itself with grotesquely large bonuses. And yes, rewards itself for replacing highly skilled and experienced white engineers and managers with young inexperienced poorly trained blacks. It is Manyi's redefinition of “skill” that allows this sort of thing to happen.

But worst of all, the idea that there is no skills shortage, just racism, removes any incentive to correct the imbalances of the past by the one means that would actually work: education. Education in South Africa is in a dismal state, and getting worse. And it's not for lack of money: South Africa spends more per capita than countries of comparable economic development. Could it because schools are run and staffed by people who don't have the skills to do so? Mr Manyi would probably argue that's it's all a racist plot since there is no skill shortage.

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*The second part of this article will be posted tomorrow.*

*Also posted on Weku, @tim-beck, 2019-01-12*
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@fionasfavourites ·
That premise is just revolting.  Makes me sick to the stomach.

On the issue of learning engineering on the job:  I must take issue with you.  The principle of learning on the job is the basis of all apprenticeships and that remains a route to becoming an engineer.  In South Africa and more particularly in Germany and Switzerland where the dual system is entrenched - culturally through the guild system - and in the education system.  As it is in Sweden.  It's at long last making a come-back in South Africa, but will take time.

This principle does apply in medicine if one examines how doctor's training is done.  BTW, did you know that most MBBCHBs are not degreed individuals but rather Members of the Collge of Medicine?
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