South Africa faces alarmingly high levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment in the context of a weak economic outlook. Recently, Parliament hosted a series of hearings and workshops on the possibility of legislating a national minimum wage. A National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) task team is currently discussing some form of a minimum wage agreement, and has until July to report back to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. This debate was foreshadowed by the inclusion of a call for an investigation into the topic of a minimum wage in the ANC’s 2014 election manifesto, at the behest of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

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Written by Mayibuye Magwaza, Researcher
Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO)