CHAMBER BRIEFS: LABOUR MARKET CHAMBER

Immigration Policy

Nedlac has attempted to add value to the Immigration Bill discussion, although this has not been an easy process. A report was presented to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs during its deliberation on the Bill indicating that the Nedlac parties were not satisfied with the process that had taken place. The next step would be to consider the Regulations that will follow the promulgation of the Act.

Productivity

A productivity task team has been meeting to take forward discussions on this issue. Clarifications will be sought as to how a possible Productivity Accord would relate to the proposed Growth and Development Summit.

DEVELOPMENT CHAMBER

Higher Education

Cabinet approved Government's proposals for the transformation and reconstruction of higher education, on 29 May 2002.

The new system will comprise of 21 higher education institutions, consisting of 11 Universities, 6 Technikons, and 4 comprehensive institutions. The details are provided in the report entitled "A new institutional Landscape for Higher Education in South Africa". A three month period is allowed, by law, for comments before finalisation of each of the proposed mergers. The Nedlac constituencies are formulating position papers on the proposals for deliberation at a meeting with the Minister of Education.

Social Security

[This is a joint issue between the Development and Labour Market Chambers]

The report of the Commission on Social Security was formally tabled at Nedlac on 13 June 2002. Parties are deliberating on the report, and will forward their proposals to the Secretariat for feedback to the Department of Social Development.

Civil Society Summit

The Civil Society Summit has been postponed to 12 & 13 August 2002.

PUBLIC FINANCE AND MONETARY POLICY CHAMBER

Financial Sector Transformation

This process is continuing with a view to holding a Summit in August.

• Engagement on 2003 National Budget

There is a Budget Policy Session scheduled to take place on 24 June 2002 with the Minister of Finance.

• Food Price Increases

A task team bringing together the National Treasury, the dti, the Department of Labour and the National Department of Agriculture together with business, labour and community has been meeting to discuss the food price increases. A report should be concluded shortly.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY CHAMBER

• Sector Summits

  A proposal has been received for a summit in the Metals and Engineering Sector. As indicated previously, the ICT Steering Committee will continue to meet.

• Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Bill

  Some areas of agreement and disagreement were established when the task team met to consider the redrafted Minerals Development Bill. These will be fed into the Parliamentary process of considering the Bill.

• Trade Issues

  A sub-committee has met and finalised discussions on the draft CITA BILL and the South African Customs Union Agreement. The CITA Bill makes provision for the establishment of a new Commission on International Trade Administration, replacing the Board on Tariffs and Trade.

  In terms of the forthcoming WTO round of negotiations, the chamber has resolved to form 5 task teams to deal with Agriculture and Services, Industrial Tariffs, Trips (intellectual property), Rules, Trade and Environment. The task teams will start working in July.

Visits to Nedlac

At the request of the Department of Labour, Nedlac hosted a tripartite delegation from Ghana on 16 May, led by the Deputy Minister of Manpower and Employment, Mr Jan Donker.

At the request of the ILO, Nedlac hosted a tripartite delegation from Nigeria on 22 May.

Both delegations were interested to find out more about the Nedlac model and processes. They were also very interested to hear about the Presidential Jobs Summit, and how Nedlac had contributed to the agreements reached.