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ABSTRACT
This paper is about the notion of skills transfer in South Africa and the influences that emanate from outside the country. It takes the position that while the concept is recent, skills transfers actually predate its introduction into academic discourse. This is because the skills that slaves and indentured labourers carried with them across continents were not ascribed with the recognition it deserved. The discussion here emphasizes that slavery and indentured labour were characteristically imbued with skills that were requisite to build the infrastructures for which colonial empires became so famous, but they were denied the recognition. Most often concepts such as "unskilled labour" serve as a justification for exploitative conditions under which workers are employed. But beyond the history of these issues is the transference of skills that are also not given due recognition if they are not classified as "certified expertise" through theoretical and sometimes practical training from recognized institutions. In recognizing this contemporary feature among migrants and the skills that they carry with them, this paper highlights the relevant legislative devices that are meant to guide recruitment in South Africa, and suggests that much can be learnt from the technical and entrepreneurial skills that foreigners carry with them into South Africa as instructive lessons for employment among the masses of the unemployed.
INTRODUCTION
"Skills transfer" is a recently introduced concept that often explains the movement of formally qualified people across regional and continental borders. But there is a history to this phenomenon that dates back to at least the beginnings of European colonial expansion in the 16th century. The world has come a long way since the 17th and 18th centuries when male slaves, especially African, were chosen to work for their captors across continents purely for their brute strength. Women were taken for mere domestic work and procreation largely to ensure the sustainability of an "unskilled"2 and semi-skilled workforce.But they were also continually abused through sexual enslavement as well, often rendering their male partners totally defenseless against the brutality of this racially oppressive system (Haley, 1980; Stowe 1999; Jacobs 2001).
Slave labour was brought to a gradual halt in the latter and early parts of the 18th and 19th centuries respectfully, as countries gradually accepted the need to change....