January 2011
Growth path towards permanent stability
The World Cup has proven to the world what South African's are capable of, but going forward, we should all be prepared to do more to get our own house in order. This editorial quotes SKF Africa MD Barry Dailly, who says that this is a ‘normal' year, without any abnormal event stimulus. He believes the economy is still holding an upward trend without this abnormal stimulus.
While Cosatu in its document entitled ‘A growth path towards full employment' is critical of both the management and direction of the economy, citing unemployment, flexible labour markets, casualisation, outsourcing and the use of labour brokers as key indicators of government's insensitivity towards the working class.
Regardless of what side of the fence one sits on, most would agree that economic growth is pointless unless it leads to long-term improvement of our collective quality of life - more jobs, higher incomes and better access to services.
Isn't it the need for these same good things that gives room for growth? Is it not increasing domestic demand from an increasingly better-off Chinese population that stabilises the high growth rates in China?
We believe that a significant portion of Cosatu's wish list can and should be, taken seriously. Holistic growth across the economy is preferable by far, to pockets of growth in isolated sectors. We should be willing to invest in poverty alleviation and social upliftment; and looking to spend money on maintaining our roads, our electricity and distribution network, our sewage and waste water treatment plants and our housing settlements.
These activities in themselves are opportunities for real growth and job creation. But only if real, appropriately competent and appropriately paid people are really working towards lasting improvements.
Peter Middleton
Please contact the editor Peter Middleton, or Dale Kelly on tel: +27 11 622 4770, or email: mechanical@crown.co.zafor editorial; and Lyn Sara for your advertising requirements on lyns@crown.co.za.
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Front cover story
For the January front cover story, we visited Africa's largest designer, manufacturer and repairer of hydraulic cylinders, Hytec Engineering, which is extending its cylinder service exchange programme to include a much wider range of mining and earthmoving equipment from the major OEMs operating in this country.
MechTech features for February
• Proactive maintenance, lubrication and contamination management
• Materials handling and logistics
• Manufacturing technology and plant automation
• Heating, cooling and air conditioning
• Innovative engineering
In March, we'll be covering:
• Pump systems, pipes, valves and seals
• Robotics, mechatronics and automation
• Power, energy and energy management
• Modern transport and vehicle solutions
• Innovative engineering
MechTech's editorial policy
In this, the first month of the year, we would like to remind our readers and advertisers of our editorial philosophy. MechTech sets out to support local industry in all issues that may be informative and interesting to professionals across the full spectrum of engineering and the mechanical trades. We want to promote responsible engineering and business practices and to highlight opportunities for South African companies to become more globally competitive.
We believe that efficiency, in terms of energy, resource use and productivity, are key features of responsible engineering. The editorial team seeks to promote good design, sound decision making and procurements practices, based on neither best possible performance not lowest capital cost, but rather on appropriate solutions for technical tasks at lowest lifecycle costs.
MechTech believes that environmental issues are, and will remain, of increasing importance going forward, and that sustainable development is essential if we are to secure our planet and the quality of life for future generations.
