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| Africa Subsaharan |
| South African Air Force losing top technicians. |
| 2008-12-09 |
| The SA Air Force has lost dozens of top engineers and technicians in just a few months, with ten senior technicians resigning in one week to go to Australia. The ten technicians were offered jobs by an Australian aviation agency. This comes after 20 aircraft engineers were poached by the same agency earlier in May. Technicians at Ysterplaat air force base say that if management doesn't come up with a solution to the problem soon, the SAAF could lose all its top technicians by December. A technician with 20 years' experience, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said morale was at an all-time low at all of the country's air force bases. He said "everyone" was talking about leaving the force for more benefits and higher salaries. "Morale is low, and the Australian Air Force's recruitment team will be in the country in two weeks to recruit even more staff." The source added that although pilots and technical personnel enjoyed their jobs, conditions had worsened over the past five years. "Top management's attitude, the mass retrenchment of skilled technicians in the late 1990s and the hiring of inexperienced senior personnel are just some of the reasons. Crime and the cost of living are the secondary reasons why people want to leave." The source said senior technicians were paid "peanuts", and were going home with just over R9 000 a month. "Technicians in exactly the same post in Australia go home with anything between R19 000 and R28 000 a month. "The government shouldn't be moaning that such a lot of skilled people are leaving the defence force; they should rather be reviewing their salary scales." In April, SA's military top brass warned that the rate at which soldiers, sailors, pilots and technicians were being poached from the SANDF posed a serious threat to the country's security. Last week the chief director of the SA Navy's maritime strategy division, Rear Admiral Bernhard Teuteberg, admitted the navy was struggling, mainly because technicians were being poached by international companies. But the former head of the SA Navy's mechanical operations in Simon's Town, David Nathan, said the skills shortage was created by the retrenchment of nearly 1 000 skilled engineers in the 1990s. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #8 When an organization starts hiring and promoting based solely on skin color, the competent always get the shaft. So, they leave--and expose the affirmative action hires for the toadies and incompetents they are. The organization, of course, completely disintegrates as a functioning entity. Sorry, South Africa. I was in your country when it was a beautiful and relatively peaceful place, the jewel of Africa. Now it's on the fast toboggan run to being Zimbabwe. May God help any white person who can't get out of there because it's very certain no one else will. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-12-09 21:27 |
| #7 Pre ANC control, I imagine they had an effective deterrent force |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-12-09 17:39 |
| #6 South Africa has an Air Farce? Who knew? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-12-09 17:29 |
| #5 Methinks the same thing happenned to the Rhodesian airforce in the ewarly 80's... :)) p.s. And for similar reasons... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2008-12-09 15:20 |
| #4 I'm curious if most of these people were white or black or if they were a mixed lot. If they were mostly white, they may have been looking for a chance to get out of SA for a while, so it may not even have been the pay that did it. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-09 12:05 |
| #3 Could it possibly be the.... L E A D E R S H I P ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-09 10:42 |
| #2 Pay and benefits are always better in the civilian world, yes? You need to give your people a reason to stay. Or become North Korea. That kinda sorta works, at least for the retention problem. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-12-09 10:28 |
| #1 the hiring of inexperienced political-correct-and connected senior personnel There, fixed it. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-12-09 02:44 |