Programme Director,
The Deputy President of the Republic, Paul Mashatile,
Minister of Employment and Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth
The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Jomo Sibiya
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour
The Acting Director General of the Department of employment and labour and other DGs present here
The ILO country Director, Mr Alexio Musindo
Leadership of government, business, community and most importantly Organised Labour,
Executive Director of Nedlac, Makhukhu Mampuru, and your team,
Colleagues, guests and members of the media, all protocol observed.
It is a pleasure to be with you today. This is a privilege we do not take lightly as labour. Whilst we are gathered to reflect on the important work done at Nedlac and the challenges we endeavour to tackle going forward, we must always remember the fundamental challenges facing our nation. We face a crippling unemployment rate of 42.9% and an unbelievable unemployment rate of 73.1% for young people between 15 and 24 years of age. We face a collapse of national industrial capacity – driven by a neoliberal economic agenda that prioritises profit over people and leaves a jobs bloodbath in its wake. It hollows out the state – stranding us with struggling public and municipal services, stagnant economic growth and entrenched levels of poverty, inequality, crime and corruption. This is a crisis and a national emergency. It cannot be business as usual.
However, we commend the work done by the Nedlac collective over the past year, in particular the implementation of the long-sought Two Pot Pension Reforms releasing over R56 billion to more than 3.5 million highly indebted workers. This is a social compact in action and most importantly, one that has improved the lives of workers across the nation. More needs to be done to ease tax pain on this intervention.
We welcome work done to ensure the African Continental Free Trade Area will be anchored upon accelerating sustainable economic development and nurturing fragile sectors and jobs. Important work has been done to ensure workers’ hard-won gains are secured in our labour laws and we extend these protections to vulnerable workers.
More must be done to ensure a progressive people-centred budget, to deal with the crisis of employers defaulting on pension fund contributions, the archaic systems frustrating thousands of workers seeking relief due to them from the Unemployment Insurance and Compensation Funds. We need to engage to ensure industries and workers are cushioned from increasingly unaffordable electricity hikes as well as the global trade tariff turmoil. We need to double our efforts to address the rising cost of living given the alarming findings from a recent Household Affordability Index report that the average South African worker spends over 57% of his or her monthly earnings on transport and electricity – leaving little room for food and other essential expenses. This can not be normal.
Much has been achieved to protect and improve the lives of the working class across South Africa through Nedlac, from the drafting of our progressive labour laws at the dawn of our democracy to saving millions of lives and livelihoods during COVID-19.
When Nedlac was established in 1994, it defined three fundamental challenges which are:
- Sustainable economic growth
- Greater social equity
- Increased participation by all major stakeholders in economic decision making
We are confident that Nedlac remains a key platform for social dialogue and compacts going forward and should be protected and defended. Therefore, no section of our country should feel left out of Nedlac and social dialogue. It is critical that government, social partners and the Nedlac Secretariat do not rest on the laurels of past victories. We have seen during the decade of state capture how fragile institutions of governance can be. We must continue to push government and ourselves as social partners to do more to make that better life for all a lived reality.
Lastly allow me to express on behalf of Organised Labour our sincere appreciation to the Nedlac Secretariat, to welcome the new Executive Director, Makhukhu Mampuru, to the team and our deep gratitude to the former ED, Lisa Seftel, who ably led us during COVID-19 and ensured Nedlac’s role as the nation’s centre for social dialogue.
Thank you.
