Community constituency speech by Thandi Sigodi, convenor Women's National Coalition

Mr deputy President and honourable guests. This first Nedlac summit has a particular significance for the community constituency.Those of you who were at the launch of Nedlac last year will no doubt recall that therewere only three constituencies participating in Nedlac at the time. Today's summit marksthe first gathering of this nature at which community proudly takes its place alongsidelabour, business and government.

This summit is an important milestone in the process of transformation in our country.We have emerged from a traumatic history, characterised by conflict and suffering, into anew era of reconstruction and development. Despite the differences which this history hascreated in our society, we come together in Nedlac out of a recognition that we need towork together in order to improve the quality of life of all South Africans. We believe,and I guess we all agree, that no one party can do this alone. We need effectiveinvolvement, strong partnership and the commitment of all parties to achieve this majorgoal.

Nedlac, as a body which brings government, business, labour and community together, hasa significant role to play in this process. Substantial progress has already been made inits first year of existence. Nedlac has acted as a source of information and debate, ithas facilitated interaction between the constituencies, and some important agreements havebeen reached. Perhaps more importantly, the building blocks have been put in place toensure a heightened level of activity and agreement-making in its second year and beyond.

The emergence of the community constituency

Nedlac has played a positive role in facilitating the coming together of variouscommunity sectors into a single constituency. Immediately after Nedlac's launch last year,a process was initiated to identify the key community sectors and mass-based organisationsin civil society for inclusion in Nedlac. The organisations selected all have a nationalpresence, which gives Nedlac the assurance that it is fairly reflective of the SouthAfrican reality.

The five sectors forming the community constituency quickly consolidated into a unitedfront which has developed the capacity to represent broad community interests and concernsacross the different sectors, and, in addition, is also contributing to policyformulation.

The status of community in Nedlac

One of the common concerns is the status of community in Nedlac vis--vis labour,business and government. Community organisations and NGOs within and beyond the communityconstituency have from the very inception of Nedlac raised concern at being confined tothe Development Chamber.

Community has substantial interest in issues which relate to the terms of reference andwork programmes of the other chambers. Just to mention a few examples:

• The budget and taxation issues in the Public Finance and Monetary Policy Chamber.
• Basic conditions of employment, employment equity and ILO conventions in the Labour Market Chamber.
• Small business development in the Trade and Industry Chamber.

In addition, community has an interest in issues which cut across the chambers,including job creation and human and social development. The concerns of marginalisedsectors, including rural, disabled, women and youth, are pertinent to the activities ofall chambers.

Our current status in Nedlac also puts us at an unfair disadvantage to the otherconstituencies. In addition to being restricted to one chamber, we are limited to fewernumbers in the Management Committee, and we currently have fewer representatives in theExecutive Council. Coupled to this, we entered Nedlac at a point when the otherconstituencies had already developed substantial experience through participation in theformative stages of Nedlac and in its predecessor, the National Economic Forum. Thesefactors have led to a tangible sense in which we have been viewed as lesser partners, andour contributions have not been accorded their true value. This perception has extended tothe status of the Development Chamber as well.

Despite the obstacles, we would argue that the track record of community in theDevelopment Chamber shows a somewhat different picture, and that our participation inother Nedlac structures is starting to become more telling. We would also argue that ourparticipation in the Development Chamber has been a key factor in ensuring that thischamber is now in a position to deliver substantial results in the months ahead.

All constituencies have agreed to table this representation issue for reconsideration{noting the legislation guiding Nedlac}. We hope that we will address the next summit astruly equal partners with government, business and labour in every sense.

The year ahead

Community views the year ahead as a year for implementation and measurable results. Asalready mentioned, much of the groundwork has been done and the potential is there toachieve significant results.

We need as Nedlac to identify key priorities and set targets for the coming period.

We have a number of expectations which we consider to be realistic and achievable:

We expect all constituencies, including the community constituency itself, to measuretheir positions against the RDP. After the 1994 elections, the RDP became the programme ofthe new government and was endorsed by a range of sectors, including all constituencies inNedlac. However, constituencies have all too often tended to conveniently ignore what theyhave previously endorsed. In particular, we expect that the activities of Nedlac will takeplace within the context of the fundamental principles of the RDP, notably the integrationof growth, development, reconstruction and redistribution into a unified programme whichmeets basic needs and opens up economic and human potential.

We expect to make progress on, among others, job creation, economic empowerment,housing, the Masakhane campaign and human and social development.

All constituencies have agreed on the importance of tackling unemployment. We needsolutions which link job creation with meeting basic needs, and which address the variousoptions by means of which jobs can be created, including big business, small business, thestate as service provider, public works and community-development projects.

The serious shortcomings of housing policy have been widely recognised and there is arenewed willingness to look at other options. One of the key weaknesses was the lack ofinvolvement of all stakeholders in critical policy processes. It has already been agreedat Executive Council level that Nedlac has an important role to play.

The community constituency has committed itself to playing a key role in normalisingpayments at the local government level within the context of democratic local governance,visible improvement in service delivery and affordability constraints. The Masakhanecampaign was conceptualised in this context but has run into critical problems. We areparticularly concerned with the lack of urgency given to this issue by government to date,but have been assured of progress in the very near future.

Development is incomplete if it only focuses on concrete structures to the exclusion ofhuman and social development. Appropriate education, health and welfare approaches andadequate resources are therefore key to achieving the goals of the RDP.

We expect that marginalised sectors, including women, rural, disabled and youth, willbe involved in policy formulation across all chambers from the initial stages to ensurethat all policy addresses their needs and concerns.

Problems that we have experienced have been due in part to weaknesses within thecommunity constituency itself: organisations have experienced a loss in leadership to alllevels of government; they have difficulty in accessing funds; and they need to adapt tothe new development challenges which have become possible due to political change.

Finally, the organisations comprising the community constituency are all faced withvery severe constraints with regard to capacity and financial resources. We expect to beable to work towards solutions to these very pressing needs so that we are able to playour full role in the activities of Nedlac.

We would like to note that we are going to release a document which will detail ourposition on economic and development policy during the next week or so.

We look forward to a productive year in which the constituencies in Nedlac worktogether in a constructive fashion to reach agreements which advance the RDP and result inmeaningful improvement in the quality of life of all people in this country.

I would like to conclude by saying the success of Nedlac depends on achieving thefollowing:

• Alleviating poverty, particularly for rural and marginalised people.
• Redressing unemployment - creation of jobs and economic empowerment.
• Provision of basic services such as water, energy, housing and infrastructure development.
• Human resource development.
• Building the necessary capacity for effective community participation.

I thank you all.