Who will repair South Africa’s trucks, machines and infrastructure?
Who will repair South Africa’s trucks, machines and infrastructure?
NICK PORÉE examines South Africa’s deepening skills shortage, warning that failing education, dwindling technical and engineering expertise and intensifying global competition for talent threaten transport, industry and economic recovery.
South Africa’s economy is in a state of “managed decline” and is laying the foundation for future economic failure through myopic and internally focused policy decisions. The economic crisis is the result of a systematic restriction of the national capacity to generate wealth, which accelerated between 2011 and 2025.
National government debt has risen sharply from approximately 32% of gross domestic product in 2009. According to National Treasury’s 2026 Budget Review, gross loan debt is expected to stabilise at 78.9% of GDP in 2025/26. Debt-service costs now consume 21.3% of government revenue, crowding out spending on education, infrastructure and other essential services.
The taxpayer base remains under enormous pressure. Although the number of registered and assessed taxpayers has recovered in recent years, SARS tax statistics show how heavily South Africa depends on a relatively narrow pool of individual taxpayers to finance an expanding state.
At the same time, the number of social grant beneficiaries has increased substantially over the past two decades, far exceeding population growth. This places South Africa on a path that will become increasingly difficult to sustain without stronger economic growth, broader employment and a larger tax base.
Reform without sufficient growth
As part of the presidential strategy, Operation Vulindlela was intended to unlock private-sector funding and investment by addressing constraints in electricity, logistics, water and telecommunications. However, the national debt has continued to rise despite these reforms.
The fundamental problem remains the limited capacity of government to manage, monitor and plan while continuing to apply policies rooted in the ANC’s commitment to state-led industrial policy and large public investment programmes, including the expansion of social support without sufficiently clear plans for sustainable funding. This highlights the continuing failure to achieve many of the economic goals set out in the ANC’s 1992 policy platform.
Education and the skills pipeline
No area of South African society demonstrates the consequences of poor policy and declining institutional capacity more clearly than education. The basic education system receives hundreds of billions of rand annually, including funding for the National School Nutrition Programme. A substantial proportion of provincial education budgets is absorbed by salaries for teachers and administrative staff, leaving limited funding for textbooks, equipment, maintenance and new facilities.
The results are visible. Roughly half of the learners who enter the school system do not complete matric within the expected period. Pass requirements remain low and South Africa continues to perform poorly in international comparisons of education and skills readiness.
As economist Lawrence Katz has observed in discussing international youth employment: “When the education system doesn’t keep up, you have widening inequality.” His warning is particularly relevant to South Africa’s growing divide between the qualifications young people possess and the skills employers require. International benchmarks, including the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), demonstrate the scale of the problem.
PIRLS 2021 found that 81% of South African Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning in any language. The study assesses learners at an average age of approximately 10 years. TIMSS 2019 found that only 37% of South African Grade 5 learners had acquired basic mathematical knowledge, while just 28% had acquired basic science knowledge. South African Grade 9 learners also continued to achieve relatively low mathematics and science scores, despite improvements over previous assessment cycles.
A high proportion of learners advance through the system with marks below 50%, leaving many inadequately prepared for technical education and employment. The poor condition, inadequate equipment and overcrowded classrooms of many schools contribute further to declining education quality. As in other parts of the public service, remuneration for senior administrators is often hard to reconcile with the quality of the outcomes being achieved.
Unemployment deepens the crisis
South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026. The expanded definition, which includes discouraged jobseekers, was 43.1%. Youth are particularly badly affected. Stats SA reported that 5.6 million people aged between 15 and 34 were employed in the first quarter of 2026, while 4.7 million were unemployed and 10.6 million were outside the labour force. The official unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 34 was 45.8%. Among people aged 15 to 24, it reached 60.9%.
A further concern is the economy’s low labour absorption rate, which measures the proportion of the working-age population that is employed. This weakness is compounded by continuing deindustrialisation and the loss of industries that traditionally provided apprenticeships, workplace training and entry-level technical employment.
Transport faces an acute technician shortage
The net impact on the transport industry (and many other sectors) is an alarming shortage of qualified technicians and the looming problem of school-leavers who are not sufficiently prepared for the technical training required by industry. The low proportion of matriculants with acceptable competence in languages, mathematics and science creates a major barrier to technical training. Candidates generally require a matric certificate with adequate marks in mathematics and physical science before they can be considered suitable for advanced technical programmes.
Modern vehicles contain more than 30,000 parts and are increasingly computer-driven. Automotive technicians operate in a very different environment from the spanners-and-wrenches era. Computer diagnostics and complex electronic technology mean technicians require continuous training as new models, powertrains and systems are introduced. Highly qualified automotive technicians are becoming increasingly scarce in South Africa – not only for internal combustion engines, but also for hybrid technology and battery-electric vehicles.
The technician shortage is not limited to automotive trades. It has become a national problem with serious consequences for industrial competitiveness. Local training and qualifications must meet international standards in electronics, computer diagnostics and the application of modern engineering skills. The inability to access competent technicians is becoming a leading cause of downtime and rising repair costs in numerous industries.
DECLINING ENGINEERING CAPACITY
The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) reports a similarly critical shortage of engineers and other built-environment professionals. South Africa faces a debilitating lack of engineering skills, particularly in the public service, where departments and municipalities seldom have full complements of qualified and experienced technical personnel.
SAICE has identified shortages of skilled professionals, inadequate mentorship, fragmented skills development, delays in professional registration and a lack of technical decision-makers in government as major constraints on infrastructure development. It cites Engineering Council of South Africa figures indicating that the country has approximately one engineer for every 3,166 people – well below international benchmarks.
The shortage has serious future ramifications because experienced mentors are required to guide trainees. These mentors are becoming increasingly scarce, with many qualified engineers approaching retirement age. South Africa’s engineering capacity has also been weakened by the emigration of skilled professionals and the loss of institutional experience from both the public and private sectors.
Global competition for scarce talent
The combination of poor education and limited trainability for present and future technologies poses significant challenges to industrial efficiency. It will also negatively affect economic recovery and global competitiveness.
The international trend towards major infrastructure investment is increasing demand for technicians and engineers worldwide. Overseas salaries increase the chances that South Africa will lose more trained engineers, artisans and technicians. Given the rand’s relative weakness, it will be difficult to attract foreign expertise while paying local salary scales. Crime, infrastructure failures, xenophobia and anti-foreigner sentiment further reduce South Africa’s attractiveness to skilled immigrants.
The country is therefore caught in a damaging cycle. It struggles to produce sufficient technical skills locally, loses qualified people to stronger international markets and remains unattractive to many of the foreign professionals who could help to close the gap.
Remote diagnostics offer one solution
One immediate practical response is the development of internet-based, onboard computer access and diagnostic capabilities, supported by 24-hour technical assistance from original equipment manufacturers and service centres.
Such services are already operating internationally and in certain local sectors. Some South African equipment manufacturers and suppliers, including Bell Equipment and Condra, offer forms of remote monitoring, diagnostic support and technical assistance, although these capabilities are not yet universally available.
A recent example from the agricultural sector involved a field technician accessing error codes from the United States, obtaining part numbers from Sweden and contacting a local spares department. The entire process took a little over an hour, cost approximately R700 and returned a machine valued at R1 million to service.
Diagnostic services will still require trained field repair personnel and rapid parts delivery. However, they also offer scope for innovation, including mobile technical support, regional service hubs and, eventually, remote drone deliveries of small critical components.
Technology cannot replace skills
Remote diagnostics, artificial intelligence and connected machinery will help companies to identify failures more quickly and use scarce expertise more efficiently. They cannot, however, compensate fully for a collapsing education and training pipeline.
A diagnostic system may identify the fault, but someone still needs the knowledge and practical ability to repair it. South Africa therefore needs urgent improvements in basic education, technical training, apprenticeships, mentorship and the retention of experienced professionals.
The future has arrived, but South Africa’s ability to implement and maintain the necessary advancements faces severe limitations.
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