Date: 31/03/2004
Source: Department of Labour
Title: M Mdladlana: Launch of Aberdare Cables and Izingwe Consortium partnership
SPEECH OF THE HONOURABLE MMS MDLADLANA, MP, ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ABERDARE CABLES, AN ALTRON SUBSIDIARY, AND THE IZINGWE CONSORTIUM, 31 March 2004
The Chairman of Aberdare Cables
The Chairman of Izingwe Capital and newly appointed Deputy Chair of Aberdare Cables
Chairman of the Altron Group
Colleagues and - dare I say - comrades
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It was with pleasure that I accepted the invitation from my former Director-General, Sipho Pityana, to attend the launch of this partnership between Aberdare Cables and the Black Empowerment Izingwe Consortium. This pleasure came not only from the satisfaction one gets when witnessing the success of former colleagues, but also from what a deal like this represents. In order to fully appreciate what this represents - and, indeed, our expectations of this partnership - it is important to look at the broader context in which it is taking place.
Apartheid systematically and purposefully restricted the participation of black people in the economy. It defined a certain role for us - namely cheap, expendable labour - and set out to mercilessly crush those who sought to challenge it. African entrepreneurs were sincerely restricted in what and where they could trade, size of the business and denied access to capital and good land. This resulted in the accumulation process being confined to a racial minority and the assets of millions of South Africans destroyed.
On the 27 April we celebrate 10 years of Freedom and Democracy. Ten years of Peace and Progress. We celebrate a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it. Today South Africa is a democratic country. Today South Africa has a growing economy. Today South Africa is a partner amongst countries of Africa and the world. Today we walk tall as South Africans. We made tremendous strides in transforming our society and restructuring our economy. Today we can celebrate ten years of consistent growth that has created 2 million net jobs. Our country has stabilised the economy and we are now able to position ourselves as an advanced manufacturing economy.
The fact that we have made actual progress, gives us real hope for the future. The foundation that our government has made is solid.
Despite these successes and continued and sustained interventions on the part of government we remain a country where the words 'black' and 'poor' can be used interchangeably and 'white' is synonym as with 'rich'. It is a further truism that gender inequality remains entrenched and people with disabilities are effectively excluded from the economy.
Not only is the skewed distribution and access to wealth morally abhorrent, societies characterised by entrenched economic disparities along racial lines will experience social and political instability - our people are patient, but their patience is wearing thin - and this potential for instability will impact on long term sustainable economic growth. Furthermore, an economy that meets the needs of all its people, needs to be built on the utilisation of the full-potential of all South Africans.
A key element in our ANC-government's arsenal to address this and achieve our vision of an adaptive economy characterised by growth, employment and equity by 2014 is the vehicle of Black Economic Empowerment or BEE. We define BEE as an integrated and coherent socio-economic process that directly contributes to the economic transformation of South Africa and brings about significant increases in the number of black people that manage, own and control the country's economy, as well as significant decreases in income inequality. So BEE is about investment, ownership and control of enterprises and economic assets. Even more importantly the issues are indispensable to the success of any BEE strategy, these include human resource development, employment equity, enterprise development and preferential procurement.
The ANC-government, has and - I assure you - will continue to create an environment that encourages BEE. Interventions to do so include, legislative, regulations - such as the balanced score-card - the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, preferential procurement, institutional support, partnerships and charters.
As I said earlier, there were two reasons for my pleasure in accepting this invitation. The second and primary reason is that this deal is a clear indication that our policies are working. It is through this R165-million partnership black people are getting a stake in a significant player in the South African economy.
But it is also important that the Izingwe Consortium also exercises the control this deal gives them access to. I am very pleased to see that Izingwe has already emphasised its ability to deliver and implement transformation solutions, but Izingwe must and I am sure will also play a key role in driving Aberdare's business.
In the media coverage accompanying the deal Sipho's role as DG at Foreign Affairs has consistently been highlighted. What they have failed to mention is that before joining the Foreign Affairs team, Sipho was Labour DG and he was Labour DG for a much longer period. I hope, in light of this, that when I send my inspectors to visit your workplaces tomorrow that there will be 100 percent compliance to all aspects of our law.
The purpose of the Employment Equity is to prohibit unfair discrimination in employment. It also requires specific measures to be taken to provide opportunities to blacks, women and people with disabilities so that they can be equitably represented across all levels of occupations.
It is my Department that is the custodian of this Act , and I want to emphasise that we are in the process of both ensuring that all employers covered by this legislation comply with it and that existing loopholes are closed. We can not speak of an inclusive economy until all workplaces, at all levels are demographically representative of our population. This does apply to Aberdare and I was hoping that the equity targets highlighted in the earlier presentation would be a little more ambitious. Perhaps this is an area that demands your intervention, Sipho.
I wish to congratulate the parties involved in the partnership and wish them profitability in this new venture and that the partnership adds substantively to the transformation of our economy to one where all our people enjoy its benefits.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Labour
31 March 2004
Source: Department of Labour
Title: M Mdladlana: Launch of Aberdare Cables and Izingwe Consortium partnership
SPEECH OF THE HONOURABLE MMS MDLADLANA, MP, ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ABERDARE CABLES, AN ALTRON SUBSIDIARY, AND THE IZINGWE CONSORTIUM, 31 March 2004
The Chairman of Aberdare Cables
The Chairman of Izingwe Capital and newly appointed Deputy Chair of Aberdare Cables
Chairman of the Altron Group
Colleagues and - dare I say - comrades
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It was with pleasure that I accepted the invitation from my former Director-General, Sipho Pityana, to attend the launch of this partnership between Aberdare Cables and the Black Empowerment Izingwe Consortium. This pleasure came not only from the satisfaction one gets when witnessing the success of former colleagues, but also from what a deal like this represents. In order to fully appreciate what this represents - and, indeed, our expectations of this partnership - it is important to look at the broader context in which it is taking place.
Apartheid systematically and purposefully restricted the participation of black people in the economy. It defined a certain role for us - namely cheap, expendable labour - and set out to mercilessly crush those who sought to challenge it. African entrepreneurs were sincerely restricted in what and where they could trade, size of the business and denied access to capital and good land. This resulted in the accumulation process being confined to a racial minority and the assets of millions of South Africans destroyed.
On the 27 April we celebrate 10 years of Freedom and Democracy. Ten years of Peace and Progress. We celebrate a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it. Today South Africa is a democratic country. Today South Africa has a growing economy. Today South Africa is a partner amongst countries of Africa and the world. Today we walk tall as South Africans. We made tremendous strides in transforming our society and restructuring our economy. Today we can celebrate ten years of consistent growth that has created 2 million net jobs. Our country has stabilised the economy and we are now able to position ourselves as an advanced manufacturing economy.
The fact that we have made actual progress, gives us real hope for the future. The foundation that our government has made is solid.
Despite these successes and continued and sustained interventions on the part of government we remain a country where the words 'black' and 'poor' can be used interchangeably and 'white' is synonym as with 'rich'. It is a further truism that gender inequality remains entrenched and people with disabilities are effectively excluded from the economy.
Not only is the skewed distribution and access to wealth morally abhorrent, societies characterised by entrenched economic disparities along racial lines will experience social and political instability - our people are patient, but their patience is wearing thin - and this potential for instability will impact on long term sustainable economic growth. Furthermore, an economy that meets the needs of all its people, needs to be built on the utilisation of the full-potential of all South Africans.
A key element in our ANC-government's arsenal to address this and achieve our vision of an adaptive economy characterised by growth, employment and equity by 2014 is the vehicle of Black Economic Empowerment or BEE. We define BEE as an integrated and coherent socio-economic process that directly contributes to the economic transformation of South Africa and brings about significant increases in the number of black people that manage, own and control the country's economy, as well as significant decreases in income inequality. So BEE is about investment, ownership and control of enterprises and economic assets. Even more importantly the issues are indispensable to the success of any BEE strategy, these include human resource development, employment equity, enterprise development and preferential procurement.
The ANC-government, has and - I assure you - will continue to create an environment that encourages BEE. Interventions to do so include, legislative, regulations - such as the balanced score-card - the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, preferential procurement, institutional support, partnerships and charters.
As I said earlier, there were two reasons for my pleasure in accepting this invitation. The second and primary reason is that this deal is a clear indication that our policies are working. It is through this R165-million partnership black people are getting a stake in a significant player in the South African economy.
But it is also important that the Izingwe Consortium also exercises the control this deal gives them access to. I am very pleased to see that Izingwe has already emphasised its ability to deliver and implement transformation solutions, but Izingwe must and I am sure will also play a key role in driving Aberdare's business.
In the media coverage accompanying the deal Sipho's role as DG at Foreign Affairs has consistently been highlighted. What they have failed to mention is that before joining the Foreign Affairs team, Sipho was Labour DG and he was Labour DG for a much longer period. I hope, in light of this, that when I send my inspectors to visit your workplaces tomorrow that there will be 100 percent compliance to all aspects of our law.
The purpose of the Employment Equity is to prohibit unfair discrimination in employment. It also requires specific measures to be taken to provide opportunities to blacks, women and people with disabilities so that they can be equitably represented across all levels of occupations.
It is my Department that is the custodian of this Act , and I want to emphasise that we are in the process of both ensuring that all employers covered by this legislation comply with it and that existing loopholes are closed. We can not speak of an inclusive economy until all workplaces, at all levels are demographically representative of our population. This does apply to Aberdare and I was hoping that the equity targets highlighted in the earlier presentation would be a little more ambitious. Perhaps this is an area that demands your intervention, Sipho.
I wish to congratulate the parties involved in the partnership and wish them profitability in this new venture and that the partnership adds substantively to the transformation of our economy to one where all our people enjoy its benefits.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Labour
31 March 2004
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