ADDRESS BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA TO THE 1999 NEDLAC SUMMIT

Gallagher Estate - 2 October 1999

Honourable Ministers
Chairperson
Social Partners
Colleagues & Friends

 It is my pleasure to welcome You all and toformally open this, the fourth annual Summit of the National Economic Development AndLabour Council. This summit follows hard on the heels of an interesting and excitingdevelopment.

The "meteoric" rise of the price ofgold is perhaps the greatest triumph for South Africa as a country, for the Africancontinent and for the rest of the developing world. The fight over the proposed sale ofgold and the subsequent plummeting of its price, brought together many of the diversecountries of the developing world. They spoke as one voice and the world of rich nationssat up and listened.

The unity of smaller nations over the issue ofgold perhaps served to make them to take these nations seriously as players in the globalvillage. Indeed it gave them a voice in the international arena. From this experience one can thus say thatthere is merit in smaller countries co-operating with each other to a greater extent toachieve a sizeable voice in the global stage.

Ladies and gentlemen the rise in the price ofgold is not simply the outcome of the invisible hand of the markets. It is principally theresult of a wide ranging set of decisions by politicians and other

social actors across the globe. It comes as aresult also of the intense lobbying by South Africans and friends of the so calleddeveloping countries from around the globe.

The lobby for debt relief for poorer countriesthat led to the cynical decision by the powerful nations of the world to sell goldreserves to finance such relief as they were willing to consider, was turned into a doubleedged sword.

As we all know South Africa, Ghana and other goldproducing nations were immediately thrown into a state of crisis with the gold priceimmediately plummeting to twenty-year lows. For a very long while mining houses and minerswere under severe pressure. Thanks to strong, decisive, joint action by employers in thegold mining industry and the National Union of Mineworkers, supported by the South Africangovernment the story, as we speak, has a happy three-hundred-dollar-an-ounce ending.

So much can be learned from this experience - forone, there are areas of common interest between employers, unions and government, areasthat are powerfully important for both. These areas provide opportunities for jointaction, and such joint action, properly handled, can help to tilt massive internationalforces in ways never before imagined. The smart partnership among these three sectors ofour society should not be allowed to die for it illustrates the successes that can beachieved if all sectors of our society pull together, striving for a common goal - that ofemployment for our people and prosperity for our country.

This experience emphasises the need for us towork hard to build sound international relations, to establish bi-national andmultilateral relationships with all nations of the world, big or small. For it is inworking together that we can achieve a better and caring world for all. The support shownby British mineworkers for their South African counter-parts is a case in point. Theexperience also highlights the need to have a social plan and social security measures inplace to protect the most vulnerable members of our country.

There is a need to find ways to reduce ourcontinued dependence as a country on the sale of gold. This makes us extremely vulnerableto such price fluctuations and to the whims of nations that, while consuming large amountsof gold, do not have any role in its production. It is encouraging however, that thepercentage of exports accounted for by gold have declined from 55% to under 20% over thelast twenty years.

We still need to find ways of ensuring that weare less vulnerable - through, for example, diversifying ourexports, increasing the value that we add to our commodities before we export them andexpanding the level of smaller businesses to cushion our economy from single industryshocks.

While the issue of gold is significant in itself,I highlighted it to illustrate two key points ~ the benefit that can derive from findingor forging areas of common purpose and mobilising behind them, and the need for us toappreciate the inter-connection of various components of policy work. During this summitwe will be talking about productivity and macro-economic policy, trade policy, HIV/AIDS,social security, infrastructure delivery and the local and international institutionsthrough which social actors come to influence them. I hope that, as the PresidentialLabour Market Commission of 1996 urged us to do, we are going to strive to build acoherent programme of measures ~ of macro-economic, trade and industry, labour market anddevelopment issues - that reinforce one another for the greater good.

For our part, we as government are emphasisingthe co-ordination of government departments and the co-ordination between the three tiersof government in programs to be implemented. One of the major programmes that we believeis going to make a difference is the Integrated Rural Development Programme. All theseelements impact on infra-structural development, job creation and economic growth. We aresaying social and economic partners must find a way in which they can come into thisprogramme. We need to see what other stakeholders, particularly the private sector, can doto ensure its success.

Government has also taken a political decision toutilise the approach of co-ordinating department and the three tiers of government inengaging as part of the anti-crime drive, the development of specific urban areas in mostprovinces. The chief aim is to turn around these areas into better places for our peopleto live in. Again here, social partners are expected to play an effective role. We invitestakeholders in Nedlac to study these developments and see what role they can play toensure their success.

These are not tasks for the faint hearted. Theissues will seldom be as clear cut as in the case of the sale of gold, nor will theco-incidence of interest be as simple. I urge you, under the umbrella of Nedlac and asSouth Africas, to isolate those areas that are critical to our country's growth anddevelopment and to agree on an agenda and time frames for the achievement of a set ofcoherent agreements behind which we can all mobilise to ensure that South Africa remains acountry at work for a better life for all.

I again welcome you to this important Summit andcommend you for the progess made thus far. I hope that the issues I raised when I lastaddressed you at the Special Executive Council Meeting, on the 26^th August 1999will be seriously addressed and that today you will come up with concrete decisions onthem.