NEDLAC SUMMIT 2000

Addressing the more than 300 delegates, the deputy president said that although South Africa had successfully negotiated political transformation, the country is still facing severe economic problems.

He further indicated that Nedlac is an important institution for negotiation between the social partners on the path that must be taken to bring about socio-economic emancipation. He said Nedlac is an arena where the partners must speak with a common voice in relation to identified key areas, 'because if we continue to war, then we risk finding ourselves engaged in struggle over declining spoils. Thus I want to stress that there can be no spectators, this is a matter on which we rise or fall together'.

He said that the problem of skills shortage in the country needs to be addressed urgently. Linked to this is the issue of productivity. Agreement must be reached on what constitutes enhanced productivity. Agreement also needs to be reached in the area of international trade. A common strategy is needed to shift the international balance of power in favour of developing countries.

The Deputy President further said that the social partners may not agree on all details, "but we need to work together to build the institutional architecture in which disagreements can be contained and overall stability maintained". He closed his speech by stating that after successfully negotiating political liberation, there is no reason why we should to fail successfully negotiate socio-economic emancipation. He further indicated that South Africa cannot afford to fail.

The Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdlalana, spoke at the opening session on behalf of government. He re-emphasised that Nedlac is the pre-eminent institution for social dialogue. Over the past six years it has brought together the voice of labour, government, business and community to bear on all critical social and economic decisions that have been made. If Nedlac is to continue to play a critical role, the partners have to identify the issues on which we need to reach national agreements, such as an employment accord, improving productivity, a new framework for international trade and a strategy for engaging the sub-continent.

Mr. Zelinzima Vavi, the secretary general of Cosatu, spoke on behalf of Fedusa, Nactu and Cosatu. As has become traditional he picked up on the story of Jabu Xulu and Cynthia Gumede, to illustrate workers' experiences over the past year. Since Cynthia's retrenchment she is now getting a meagre income from doing piecework at home and as she is the only breadwinner, her children are suffering and doing poorly at school. Jabu and Cynthia participated in the national strike. During the strike Jabu spoke about the urgent need to address the problem of job creation.

Vavi emphasised the important role that Nedlac has played over the past year in bringing together the social partners. He called for a New Deal to reconstruct our society in order to address the alarming level of unemployment and poverty and to ensure economic growth for the future. The roles and responsibilities for each of the partners in terms of the new deal have to be defined. Agreement is not going to come easily, but solutions that do not undermine the interests of any of the partners unfairly, need to be found.

Andre Lampbrecht spoke on behalf of the business constituency. He re-affirmed business' commitment to Nedlac as the primary institution for social dialogue. Like other speakers, he also noted the need for a common strategic vision for the country that will result in a better life for all South Africans. He stated that business believes that the only way to improve the quality of life is for South Africa to become the leading emerging market in the world and the place of first choice for investment, including foreign investment. South Africa has to offer an attractive environment for investment. Although our macroeconomic policies and monetary and fiscal policies are sound we are not attracting investment. The problem is created by for example, the level of crime, lack of investment in infrastructure and uncertainty created by implementation of a property tax and the introduction of a capital gains tax. He called on all Nedlac constituencies to identify national priorities and for a concerted effort for all partners to work towards achieving the identified goals.

Mr. Khulu Mbongo addressed the opening session on behalf of the community constituency. He agreed with some of the earlier speakers when he stated that the Nedlac social partners need a common vision around the strategic direction for South Africa. This should help the partners to address social and economic problems such as unemployment and poverty, low levels of investment, development of infrastructure, extending delivery of services such as health and education and addressing the low level of skills in the country. He further stated that the partners will ultimately be judged by the programmes put in place to address the priorities. The Nedlac work program will have to be organised to address these issues and the work of Nedlac during the next 12 months will be crucial.

In his address, the executive director of Nedlac, Phillip Dexter highlighted the activities of Nedlac over the past year.

Nedlac made inputs into the Municipal Systems Bill; it supported Parliament's ratification of the ILO convention concerning the elimination of the worst forms of child labour; it considered nine applications for sector demarcation under the Labour Relations Act. Under the same act, it considered 6 notices of protest action

One area of weakness has been the Public Finance and Monetary Policy Chamber that met erratically for a long period of time. Recently however, constituencies have agreed upon a work programme for the chamber. The chamber is currently considering the Pension Funds Surpluses and more recently the Minister of Finance led the chamber in a discussion of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the National Expenditure Survey.

As part of the ongoing contribution of social dialogue, the Nedlac constituencies made inputs into trade negotiations both with the European Union and the South African Development Community. The constituencies participated in government's delegation to the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation. Constituencies are currently undertaking investigations into sectors that are potentially vulnerable under the European Union Trade and Development Agreement and also identifying non-tariff barriers faced by South African exporters. In so doing, Nedlac will play an active role in the monitoring and implementation of these agreements. The Trade and Industry Chamber hosted a policy discussion with the Minister of Trade and Industry and senior officials from the department.

Numerous meetings have been held with Parliamentary Portfolio committees, the heads of other statutory institutions as well as international bodies in order to improve the co-ordination between different institutions in the formulation of policy.

Since the Summit in October 1999, the work and roles of the secretariat have been reorganised to allow the secretariat to proactively support constituencies in monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of programmes. In this respect, Nedlac undertook a large-scale survey to assess households' experiences of infrastructure and social service delivery. The results of this research, released in May 2000, revealed widespread poverty and unemployment, but also showed the substantial progress that has been made in delivering social services since the 1994 elections. The results of this research will inform the constituencies' efforts to improve the delivery of services to South Africa's people.

Much of Nedlac's work is 'in progress'. At last year's summit a commitment was made fighting the HIV / Aids pandemic. To this end the Labour Market Chamber is in the process of concluding a Code of Good Practice on HIV/Aids and Employment. The Labour Market Chamber also faces the challenge of negotiating the amendments to labour legislation. Discussion have also taken place on the Unemployment Insurance Bill, and Unemployment Contribution Bill. The Chamber has also been actively involved in responding to the White Paper on International Migration.

The Development Chamber is currently engaging national departments in order to co-ordinate constituencies' responses on poverty alleviation. A central component of this is taking forward the Presidential Jobs Summit agreement on investigating and reforming the social security system.

The Trade and Industry Chamber is taking forward the Presidential Jobs Summit agreements on developing a 'Made in South Africa' campaign and strengthening customs and excise. The Fridge subcommittee is actively involved in a wide variety of interesting projects that will contribute to improving the competitiveness of South African industry.

Turning to the issues facing Nedlac, the executive director indicated that the country's the socio-economic outlook remains daunting. The 1999 October Household Survey shows that over 36% of the economically active population are unemployed. Tackling this and other problems would require substantial economic growth. Central to this is the challenge of investment, savings, adding value to our resources and human resource development.

Human resource and skills development remains on of the largest constraints to growth. Low levels of literacy and numeracy limit people's ability to adapt to the requirements of a restructuring economy. The continued poor performance of the schooling system is a key concern to attempts to create an environment attractive for investment.

In closing, the executive director noted that HIV/Aids constitutes an enormous threat to South Africa's most valuable resource - its people. High levels of infection coupled with the high levels of poverty threaten both the social fabric of the country as well as its ability to drive economic growth.

The deputy president chaired the opening session, while the deputy director general of the department of labour, Les Kettledas was the master of ceremonies.

The full text of all the speeches delivered at the summit is available on the Nedlac website at www:\\nedlac.org.za