ADDRESS BY FADILA LAGADIEN ON BEHALF OF THE COMMUNITY CONSTITUENCY

Nedlac has come a long way in its short history. It has emerged as acritical tool not only in policy-making, but in transformation of society as a whole.Where else in the world can one find the unemployed, women, youth, persons withdisabilities, civic organisations, government, labour and business jointly forging a wayforward in a country's reconstruction and development?

The Community Constituency represents those sectors of society who havefelt the evils and shackles of apartheid most. It is also the poor, the unemployed, thedisabled, the elderly and the women and children living in rural areas who are the firstto feel the brunt of structural adjustment programmes and of macro-economic policies gonewrong. Failure to create jobs affect the youth first and foremost.

The Community Constituency's increased participation inNedlac's ultimate objectives of facilitating sustainable economic growth and greatersocial equity through problem-solving and increased participation of all its socialpartners, is therefore not only feasible, but critical. It was therefore with greatexcitement that the Community Constituency welcomed the South African Youth Council intoits fold over the past year.

Our extended participation into the other chambers of Nedlacfurthermore extends the participatory governance achieved to date in Nedlac. We wouldhowever like to indicate that we do not regard our participation beyond the DevelopmentChamber as any form of tokenism, and that we will be participating mainly in those debateswhich are of direct relevance to the Community Constituency.

The Past Year's Achievements

Please allow me to use this opportunity to extend a word ofappreciation to our social partners for the general positive manner in which negotiationsand dialogue took place over the past year. This partnership can be seen in thedeliverables, and the Community Constituency would like to highlight but a few of the manyachievements of the past year

Memorandum of Understanding on Service Tariffs

The inclusiveness of the Memorandum of Understanding can only becommended, especially as far as it concerns the unemployed and poor and their ability topay for services used. The Community Constituency would then also like to use thisopportunity to express our support for the principle of cross subsidisation in the spiritof redress between the wealthier and poorer local authorities.

Employment Equity Bill

The Employment Equity Bill is, from the perspective of the CommunityConstituency, most probably one of the most significant pieces of legislationtabled this year. We want to appeal to business in particular to support the speedyapproval of the Bill in the spirit of transformation and redress.

Skills Development Bill

Once again, this piece of redress legislation directly affects thesectors within the Community Constituency. The approval of this Bill by Nedlac can behailed as a victory in the struggle for the reconstruction and development of SouthAfrica.

The Community Constituency once again call on government to reviewtheir present obstructionist position of not contributing towards the Skills DevelopmentLevy. Successful implementation of the Skills Development Bill should be measured as tothe extent in which it reached the targeted vulnerable groups, and we believe this isdirectly related to government's willingness to contribute their share.

Masakhane Campaign

The Community Constituency congratulates both the South African YouthCouncil and the National Women's Coalition who held very successful Masakhane Summitsover the past year.

Perceived Weaknesses and Limitations

Before moving on to the challenges and priorities for the coming year,I would like to highlight a handful of the Community Constituency's perceivedweaknesses and limitations in Nedlac. The Community Constituency however believes thatthese could easily be transformed into challenges which will contribute towards theconsolidation of progress made in Nedlac -

Nedlac's Public Image

Nedlac is still perceived by many to be an elitist platform for debate.We believe that this perception takes away considerably from the critical role Nedlacplays in the transformation of society. The Community Constituency would like to proposethat the Secretariat develops a concerted media strategy to demystify Nedlac, and that theSummit for example be used as a platform which could project Nedlac more effectively.

There should also be a stronger focus on the role which the CommunityConstituency play within decision-making in Nedlac. I think the Summit will agree with ourperception that it is mainly the voices of Labour, Business and Government which arereflected in the media. The Secretariat could for example give specific attention to wayin the Community Constituency's positions during debates are reflected in minutes andpress releases.

Lack of Pro-active Action by Social Partners

Debates within Nedlac tend to be more reactive than proactive, wherebythe Social Partners often merely react to documents tabled by government. Although this isto a large extent due to the very character of Nedlac on the one hand, and the lack ofcapacity within the Community Constituency in particular, on the other hand, we believethat more pro-active action can only enhance the work of Nedlac.

Lack of Technical Negotiations Efficiency

The level of technical efficiency in negotiations is generally notalways up to standard. The Community Constituency therefore whole-heartedly supports theinclusion of facilitation and negotiations skills in the capacity-building programme for1998, and call for the urgent implementation of the programme.

Challenges and Priorities for the Next Year

Poverty Alleviation

South Africa is not winning the fight against poverty, despite a numberof half-hearted and uncoordinated attempts by the various Constituencies within Nedlac.The Community Constituency commends the efforts of SANGOCO, the South African Human RightsCommission and the Commission on Gender Equality for creating a platform for theunemployed and poor in South Africa to speak out on poverty. We also eagerly await thefirst South African Human Rights Commission Report on Socio-Economic Rights which is dueto be released later this year.

It is the view of the Community Constituency that Nedlac needs to playa much more proactive and central role in the eradication of poverty by developing a focuson the development and adoption of a Social Agreement on Poverty Alleviation between thepartners in Nedlac during the coming year. This Social Agreement needs to clearly spellout a coordinated effort with the responsibilities and commitment of the respectivepartners in Nedlac clearly defined. It should, among others, encompass the link betweenpoverty and structural adjustment programmes such as GEAR, realistic medium and long termjob creation strategies, creating an equal voice for the informal sector, narrowing thegap between the rich and the poor, poverty alleviation programmes aimed at vulnerablesectors of society through social responsibility programmes, the NDA etc.

Jobs Summit

The lack of priority which has been given to the eradication of povertywithin Nedlac can furthermore be seen in the continuous postponements of the National JobsSummit over the past year. The fact that the poor, the unemployed and the informalbusiness sector have had very little say in these postponements, speak for itself. TheCommunity Constituency calls on the Nedlac Summit to reconfirm our commitment towardscreating a platform not only for government, business and labour at the Jobs Summit, butin particular for unemployed job-seekers and the informal business sector, which webelieve do not enjoy any significant representation within the activities of Nedlac.

Capacity building

The Community Constituency at times find themselves over-stretched dueto limited time and resources. One of the major challenges facing the CommunityConstituency in particular in the coming year, is increasing our capacity to prepareourselves sufficiently for participation and effective interaction in the work of theother chambers. We view this capacity building at two levels, that is within the CommunityConstituency as an entity, as well as within the respective sectors which make up theconstituency.

We propose that the Secretariat seriously considers putting action intothe provisions of the Constitution by making available at least a summary of discussiondocuments in all official languages, as this will intensify and simplify consultationconsiderably. We call on government to recommit themselves to the creation of an enablingenvironment for civil society by accelerating the launch of the National DevelopmentAgency.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to indicate that the Community Constituencyhas initiated discussions with Labour in particular to explore common issues such as thedevelopment of joint strategies to job creation, employment equity and the eradication ofpoverty. We believe that the time has come for the Community Constituency and Labour tobuild on our past relationship in the Patriotic Front during the struggle years bycreating an Economic Front in the struggle for economic transformation and justice.

We propose that quarterly bilaterals between the Labour and CommunityConstituencies be held to develop common approaches and strategies in our quest toaccelerate the pace of social and economic transformation so many of our brothers andsisters laid down their lives for.