Ramaphosa rolls out social compact consultations with civil society
Long delay with meeting partners now being remedied
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday rolled out his nationwide roadshow with civil society in a bid to fasttrack the social compact with various stakeholders.
Ramaphosa used the gathering at Johannesburg City Hall to come clean about why the social compact, announced in his 2022 state of the nation address, had not been realised.
He was cricitised by former president Thabo Mbeki for making false promises to the nation.
The programme hit a snag after Ramaphosa failed to meet social partners. “We had wanted to have a comprehensive social compact and we had put together a timeline and we were not able to reach that timeline, but what we have seen over time is that we have been able to reach a number of compacts,” Ramaphosa said.
He said one that stood out was on gender-based violence.
“We have reached agreements and social compacts on a number of issues including the national minimum wage which was in Nedlac and for the first time we reached a national minimum wage due to social compacting.”
This had also been done in the health sector, he said, with the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) being the main “reservoir” of the compacting process.
Nedlac’s Thulani Tshefuta said a seed had been planted in the ANC leading to a social compact.
“A social compact must be positioned as a platform where ... we are rising to the national challenges. Solutions then became national solutions,” he said, adding that it was important to position people as part of the solution.
The Black Business Council’s Gregory Mofokeng told Ramaphosa that solutions had been proposed. He said black business had recommended a number of changes to the legislative environment including the Public Procurement Bill.
The council was also concerned about the youth not being economically engaged.
“Our government must take a risk on our youth,” he said, adding that young people could be upskilled to manufacture solar panels and batteries to meet the demand.
Mapungukwe Institute for Strategic Reflection’s Xolelwa Katiya said there was growing deep frustration in society with the lack of basic service provisions including water, health and electricity.
She said business needed to take a more activist approach.
Advocate Thando Gumede from SA Women in Dialogue said: “Mr President, I ask you to exercise the courage to call big business into one room and tell them that they are accountable.
“I also challenge the ANC to give an opportunity to black women to hold the highest positions in political organisation.”
Ramaphosa conceded that a gap had been formed in terms of the party’s ability to engage at a deep and serious level with civil society.
He apologised that it had taken a while to meet and assured the audience this engagement would be the first of nationwide meetings.
Ramaphosa said the government had embarked on a number of measures to address load-shedding.
“The day before yesterday we had an announcement that the availability factor has now increased in a number of power stations and this is largely because of the work we announced in the energy action plan.”
On the international front, he said SA stood by its position on resolving conflict globally peacefully, and that Nelson Mandela’s approach should be used.
“He taught us that, and it is the word that we are spreading around the world, including our continent.”
He said the common thread in the discussion was the need for collaboration and engagement.
On women empowerment, Ramaphosa said there were now more women deputy ministers and that should demonstrate the direction the ANC was going.
He welcomed the challenge for the government to take the risk of empowering women and young people.
On voting, Ramaphosa said it was important to pay attention to voter education ahead of the 2024 elections.
On the basic income grant, he said the government was working on it.
“When we introduced the R350 SRD grant and it was initially 6-million people who came forward and it grew to 11-million and it continued, we cannot drop these people because some of them really rely on this and yes, we are becoming a big welfare state but we need to demonstrate that as the ANC government we care for our people.”