SOCIAL CONFLICT OR COOPERATION FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA?

30 September 1996

Growth, equity and increased employment in the southern African region were most likely to be achieved through the establishment of formal social partnerships which leveraged cooperation to minimise conflict and decrease political risk during periods of change.

So said Nedlac Executive Director Jayendra Naidoo, giving the keynote address at a seminar in Harare today on tripartite consultation for socio-economic transformation. The seminar was held by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in conjunction with the African Regional Labour Administration Centre based in Harare.

Naidoo used the Nedlac example to demonstrate how the South African experience of social and economic partnerships helped the social partners - government, labour, community and business - to manage their differences and cooperate to their mutual benefit.

"An overarching consensus is required in order to achieve real success", he said, "and those countries around the world which have been successful in achieving growth and becoming internationally competitive have all had formal - though different - mechanisms for social partnership, whether tripartite committees on specific labour-market issues, sectoral committees on industry matters or committees for business and labour only."

He urged countries in the southern African region to consider appropriate forms of dialogue in order to break away from the era of low growth, poverty and other aspects of the colonial legacy.

"Local social partnerships, working side by side with the institutions within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), will be able to make an unquestionable contribution towards growth, stability, democracy and internal capacity-building within the region.

He noted that within these partnerships a balance had to be reached between talking and action. "While the process is as important as the result in order for the outcome to have legitimacy, partnerships must be goal-driven so that it clearly adds value to the nationalpolicy debate."

The Asian countries had recognised that their people were their prime asset and tapped into the vast pool of potential by using sectoral forms of partnerships. There was no reason why the SADC countries should not build appropriate and effective social partnerships, Naidoo concluded.