President's column

摘要

Being the first issue of 2015, I would like to wish the membership a happy and prosperous 2015. I believe the year ahead is going to be a year full of challenges. Having just returned from the annual Mining Indaba, where numbers were down, few projects on show and lots of services being sold with far too few buyers, I found the Indaba to be down from previous years. In my opinion the Indaba was so quiet that there were no queues for that sought after midday beer to fight off the previous nights' hangover. This illustrates the tough times ahead that we need to deal with as a society, professionals and as individuals. This equates to fewer opportunities being available with a: larger number of individuals and/or companies competing. Unfortunately I am of the opinion that this is going to lead to further retrenchments, short-time and increased unemployment. This potentially presents a serious impact on our younger members and recent graduates. My fear is that if the tide does not change soon it's going to make it very difficult for recent graduates to gain employment; they will be out of the field of education, unable to register with GSSSA and/or SACNASP. What will the net result be?