Is Nedlac the ideal forum to forge a new agenda for growth?
Employment will be the mainspring of economic inclusion
● The time has come for a new agenda for sustainable change, for the sake of our nation and its people. As the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), we must ask if we are capable of being a catalyst for that. Are we fit for purpose or should we be consigned to the scrapheap of history?
Nedlac is the apex forum where our various constituencies meet. Crucial social compacts and agreements have been developed and formalised since its inception, bringing about tangible improvements in the material conditions of South Africans.
This forum has contributed greatly to the development of our new democracy, in solutions forged jointly by labour, business, the government and the community constituency. The national minimum wage is the most recent example of this.
We have appropriately placed sharp focus on jobs and more jobs, even more so now that the economy is in a job-shedding phase, both because of low levels of growth and the fast-changing nature of work in the fourth industrial revolution.
Employment is the single most effective instrument for economic redistribution and inclusion. Being unemployed is a terrible assault on one’s dignity. It means not being able to put bread on the table or provide for families and loved ones. It means watching one’s family and children go hungry, falling sick and being exposed to social ills. It is little things, like not being able to look your daughter in the eye when you explain why she can’t have a new pair of shoes. These are fundamental, insufferable things. Being unemployed is, without doubt, humiliating, alienating and undermining.
Having succeeded in refocusing the nation’s agenda, we must ask ourselves whether the programme, organisation, resourcing and institutional capacity of Nedlac enable it to be a conduit and a midwife for a new agenda for sustainable change that grows our economy and creates realistic hope rather than empty promises.
Having repositioned employment at the centre of economic discourse, we must ask ourselves if the Nedlac agenda is single-mindedly addressing obstacles to job preservation and creation; and what of the employment-creation enablers?
Shouldn’t Nedlac have long since agreed on a blueprint for what we need to do to avert a Moody’s sovereign rating downgrade? Why haven’t we, given the potentially negative impact on jobs?
Shouldn’t we be openmindedly engaged with the National Treasury’s proposals on economic transformation, inclusive growth and competitiveness (consultation shortcomings notwithstanding), to ascertain how they might accelerate our agenda for jobs? We all know there can be no employment creation without economic growth. What does the growth conversation look like in Nedlac?
We all know growth is inconceivable without significant investments. Should Nedlac not be preoccupied with ascertaining how we, as social partners, can position our country to attract the most investment?
We know Eskom is our major systemic risk. Its demise would also be that of not only our economy, but the country. Are we satisfied that the Nedlac agenda prioritises engagement on this?
We know too that the bad governance and dysfunctionality of many stateowned enterprises pose a threat to the survival of our economy. We also know this malaise is a threat to employment, not only in those entities, but in the broader economy. Shouldn’t Nedlac be enabling navigation of sustainable solutions in this regard?
We know too that the continued corruption and fast-declining efficiency in our public service are a major obstacle for our economy, with devastating socioeconomic impact. Should our agenda not be addressing this?
As business, we invite this introspection because when we look at the global economy, we see tremendous opportunities. We live on a continent that is experiencing positive economic growth and playing a catalytic role in the global economy. And, as a country, there are fantastic opportunities for us to share in that.
But we need to unlock our future, and unlock it now. We must be masters of our own destiny by showing courageous leadership even at the risk of our personal standing, if that’s the price to pay for the success of the nation.
In other parts of the world, there is a strong appetite for investment in SA. We need to maximise that by making our country more investment-friendly, by making it easier to do business here, and by providing the policy certainty that is needed to reassure interested investors. Shouldn’t Nedlac unlock this?
At the same time, we need to reform our skills regime so that we facilitate the influx of high-end skills. The government should drop restrictive visa regulations that scare away executives and tourists alike. We have waited too long for that. Tourism provides so many opportunities — it attracts people on holiday, who may later come back as investors. But we need to ask ourselves: why do tourists from Europe and the Americas fly all the way to countries such as Australia for their holidays when it’s a shorter flight to SA? Why are tourist numbers from Asia declining? Why are we losing out? And what can we do to make SA more welcoming for both investors and tourists?
As we work to make SA investment-friendly, we also need to ensure we put our country first — not in the way US President Donald Trump wants to “make America great again”, but in a way that enables us to protect our sovereignty and entrenches our ability to run our economy.
To avoid things sliding further, we have to identify common issues around which we can engage, and develop common programmes and solutions in a focused and single-minded way. Much of this falls within the ambit of Nedlac. The journey ahead is tough, but doable. The common resolve of our people to succeed has seen us conquer many obstacles; this one, too, we will surmount.