The recent conclusion of the agreement on how to introduce a national minimum wage represents a major breakthrough for South Africans, the Minister of Labour, Ms Mildred Oliphant, told Members of the National Council of Provinces recently, when she highlighted some of the successes she said her Department achieved in the last financial year (2016/17).
Ms Oliphant appeared before the NCOP to present the department’s 2017/18 budget and mentioned some noteworthy achievements of the past financial year, including the agreement on the national minimum wage. This milestone concludes all the Freedom Charter demands under the clause: “there shall be work and security”, Ms Oliphant said.
She also mentioned the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which the Department of Labour has ensured is now enjoyed for 365 days, rather than the previous 238 days. “We have decentralised some authority to deal with UIF matters closer to the people by making provision in the Act for the establishment of Regional Review Boards to resolve issues at provincial level in order to reduce turnaround times,” she said.
Ms Oliphant told the NCOP delegates that the Department of Labour is not a bystander in the national efforts to create employment opportunities for South Africans. “We are deeply involved in employment-enabling initiatives,” she said. The Department of Labour has signed 30 agreements in the form of memoranda with technical and vocational education and training across South Africa for the training of UIF beneficiaries. This will fast-track their re-entry into the labour market, Ms Oliphant said.
Supporting the budget vote of the Department of Labour, the Chairperson of the Select Committee on Economic and Business Development, Mr Mandla Rayi, said the signing of the national minimum wage agreement in February by the overwhelming majority of partners, including most trade union federations, was one of the government’s finest achievements.
Mr Rayi said the Department of Labour must focus on tabling the necessary amendments to the Labour Relations Act and Basic Conditions of Employment Act in order to provide the legislative framework for the implementation of the national minimum wage agreement.
“The national minimum wage will meaningfully improve the lives of workers and begin to address the challenge of wage inequality,” Mr Rayi said.
Speaking during the debate a permanent delegate to the NCOP representing the Eastern Cape Province for the Democratic Alliance, Mr Leon Magwebu, rejected the Department’s budget vote while nonetheless appreciating its achievement on the minimum wage. “We welcome the minimum wage; it’s a positive step and must be appreciated,” he said.
Also participating in the debate, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Ms Delisile Ngwenya, who represents Gauteng, rejected the budget citing, among other things, the challenges facing so many workers. “Half of the workers in this country earn less than R3 500 per month and we suffer one of the highest levels of unemployment in the world, particularly youth unemployment,” said Ms Ngwenya.
According to Ms Ngwenya, the government needs to drive job creation by taking control of strategic sectors of the economy, abolishing the tender system, increasing state capacity, and by industrialising and diversifying the economy. “By taking control of the economy, the government will be able to promote and support industries that are labour intensive and will match our production with our consumption,” emphasised Ms Ngwenya.
Kagiso Makwa
23 June 2017
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