Top performing companies in KwaZulu-Natal receive awards

The Regional Productivity Awards winners have been announced at a function held at the Riverside Hotel Conference Centre in Durban today. The entity responsible for promoting productivity within South Africa, Productivity SA, awarded the best performers at the ceremony which will culminate in the regional award winners participating in the National Productivity Awards in Gauteng.

The Chairperson of the Productivity SA Board, Mthunzi Mdwaba said “The awards are intended at recognising organisations making significant contributions towards making South Africa a productive country”. The companies competed in the corporate, emerging and cooperative sectors.

The regional awards provide a platform to inspire a competitive and productive South Africa.  Productivity improvement is considered the most effective way of ensuring ongoing competitiveness, economic growth and, consequently, more wealth for all. The Head of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Desmond Golding, says “business and government should work together to enable economic growth”.

South Africa currently faces major challenges, for example how to create employment opportunities, stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty. If South Africa is to reduce unemployment and poverty, and increase its economic growth, its emphasis should be on developing productive capacity in all sectors of the economy.

The Productivity SA Awards seek to galavanise companies into adopting productivity as a fundamental tool to be more competitive. Productivity SA was created in 1969 as the then National Productivity Institute (NPI) and it focused on;

• Providing assistance to individual companies in their productivity improvement programs.
• Conducting research in the field of productivity and related matters.
• Promoting training and education through specific programs

Productivity SA has developed various tools and models that includes measurement tools that determine to what extent an organisation’s financial performance is influenced by price recovery and productivity.   The National Productivity Awards were launched in 1979 and since then the awards have grown to become one of the most prestigious awards for business in South Africa.  The winners are: