NEDLAC EXECUTIVE COUNCIL SUPPORTS CRIME-PREVENTION
STRATEGY, PRIORITISES HOUSING
24 September
The Nedlac Executive Council has resolved to support
government's national crime-prevention strategy and called on its
constituencies to mobilise practical action-orientated partnerships
against crime and violence.
This was one of the key decisions taken at a quarterly Nedlac
Executive Council meeting this week.
The council agreed that the combined efforts of business,
labour, government and the community were required in order to
fight the wave of crime enveloping South Africa today. It
considered plans to proceed with the organisation of a conference
aimed at developing a large-scale, broad-based strategy to fight
crime and violence. Details of these plans are likely to be
announced within the next fortnight, says Nedlac Executive Director
Jayendra Naidoo.
Implementation of the Labour Relations Act
The Executive Council also called on employers and shopstewards
at every organised workplace in the country to meet during the
first week of operation of the Labour Relations Act in order to
ensure that operational programmes were in place to facilitate the
smooth introduction of the LRA. The council said it believed that
employer-worker cooperation was key to the success of the LRA,
which will come into operation on 11 November 1996.
Nedlac has invested about R3 million in educational programmes
for unions and small employers. The Executive Council agreed to
promote the concept of each workplace having its own pack of
educational and informational material for both managers and
workers in order to ensure smooth implementation of the LRA and a
more stable industrial-relations environment.
Housing
Naidoo says the Executive Council also agreed that housing
should be given priority attention, and supported the matter being
taken forward expeditiously by Nedlac's Development Chamber. "The
chamber will focus on the implementation of housing policy, as well
as particular aspects of policy such as rental stock, with a
deadline to report to the Executive Council meeting in
December."
Regional development/tax-incentive schemes
The Executive Council noted that the evaluation of the regional
industrial development programme (RIDP) had been completed by
Nedlac's Trade and Industry Chamber and agreed to release it within
the next week.
Recommendations from this RIDP report, which makes specific
recommendations on tax holidays as incentives for companies to
participate in regional development, form the basis of the
tax-incentive scheme currently before Parliament.
Executive Council also reached agreement on an approach to tax
incentives, details of which are also to be made available
shortly.
Trade and industry policy sessions
The Executive Council welcomed the report of the recent Trade
and industry policy session, the first of a series of biannual
policy meetings which will take place in the Trade and Industry
Chamber.
"The Executive Council agreed that this session was an example
of Nedlac working at its best," Naidoo adds. The policy sessions
are aimed at providing the opportunity for business, government and
labour to share policy, perspectives and developments within their
constituencies so as to promote policy coordination and enable the
development of consensus on fundamental conceptual issues.
The council recommended that other Nedlac chambers hold similar
policy sessions.