NEDLAC CORRECTION OF INCORRECT MEDIA REPORTS

The National Economic Development and Labour Council would like to correct media reports which attribute statements made by Cosatu, Nafcoc and Sacob regarding today's strike to Nedlac. It would further like to correct reports that Nedlac did not consider the issues raised by Cosatu in its Section 77 notice of protest action.

Cosatu-Nafcoc-Sacob statement

Nedlac is a body made up of four parties -government, business, labour and community. The parties which met yesterday - Cosatu, Nafcoc and Sacob - represent part of the labour and business constituencies which are represented at Nedlac, but they do not constitute Nedlac. Therefore, headlines such as that in the Business Report, which interpret the views of these three parties as Nedlac accepting blame for the protest action, are totally false.

The meeting which took place was not an official Nedlac meeting, and the statement that was circulated following the meeting was a joint statement by those three parties, not a Nedlac statement. The meeting was convened by Nafcoc and it was chaired by the Nafcoc President, Simon Mathysen. The Nedlac Executive Director, Phillip Dexter, attended the meeting as an observer.

Nedlac's consideration of Cosatu's notice

Other press reports have stated that the matters that Cosatu raised in its Section 77 notice were not addressed in Nedlac. This is untrue. After Cosatu tabled its notice on 30 July 1999, numerous meetings were held at Nedlac to address the issues. Of the seven major issues which Cosatu raised in its notice, the parties agreed that on three of these, there had been sufficient progress. Cosatu felt, however, that the remaining four issues had not been addressed and thus filed its second notice. This is within its rights to do. However, Nedlac cannot be accused of not fulfilling its legal obligations set out in Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act.