URL: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za
Policy, Law, Economics and Politics - Deepening Democracy through Access to Information This privately-owned website is operated and maintained by Creamer Media
   
Polity
Published: 07 Jul 2003
Mdladlana: Limpopo Imbizo (07/07/2003)
Date: 07/07/2003
Source: Department of Labour
Title: Mdladlana: Limpopo Imbizo


ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF LABOUR, MEMBATHISI MDLADLANA, MP, DURING THE IMBIZO CAMPAIGN, Moletjie Moshate, Limpopo, 7 July 2003

Kgoshi Kwena Moloto
Members of the executive council, present here Tribal council
Mayor of Polokwane, Comrade Thabo Makunyane
Colleagues

Bahlaloga Thobela

Ladies and Gentlemen, perhaps I should start from the very beginning by introducing myself. I am Mphumzi Membathisi Mdladlana from Qoboqobo in the Western Cape Province of our beloved and beautiful South Africa. I feel it is my duty as an African to properly introduce myself to you as this might assist all of us in our task of ensuring a better life for all South Africans. I am a grandchild of warriors who took to the battle and taught us never to dishonour the cause of freedom. I owe my being to traditional leaders and rites, to those who occupied the place among the great galaxy of leaders of our people who had given them all to ensure that our people are liberated from oppression, from poverty and underdevelopment. Those who sacrificed their all to ensure that our people are freed from the intolerable pain, contempt and humiliation. I owe my being to all the hero's and heroines of our people who fought for the total emancipations of our country. The brave who would perish than surrender.

Today I stand before you, representing the Department of Labour a ministry in a government of South Africa that was installed by your sacrifices in 1994. On whose shoulders rests the enormous task of ensuring that the labour market framework stimulates economic growth, investment and employment creation.

The labour market that is characterised by rising skills, equity, sound labour relations, respect for employment standards and worker's rights.

I honestly wanted to introduce myself as I did so that we all should understand how serious our national duty of ensuring a better life to all South Africans is. That we should all begin to understand and appreciate the extent of the challenge we face, as a people in addressing the issues of poverty and underdevelopment in our country. Coupled with this we have worked and continue to work on the challenges of unemployment and underemployment.

Before I address myself to what we have done in the Department of Labour in improving the working conditions of our people since the advent of democracy, allow me to indicate from the beginning that it is not my intention to bore you with much detail. The booklets that we distributed to you today actually give a sum account of our legislative framework and the mandate we carried forward to this end.

I would therefore want to hear from you so as to effectively give meaning and expression to the Imbizo outreach programme.

The Imbizo programme which I kick-start here today for the Limpopo Province is a unique form of participatory democracy. It is an interactive programme that enables you to interact directly with us at all levels of government. I would therefore want to encourage you, all of you, to help make proposals for consideration in building on what we have started. Tell us how we can improve on the implementation of the National Skills Development Strategy. We refer particularly to the Social Development Funding Window of the National Skills Fund that is administered by our provincial office.

I further want to point out that we will endeavour to address all your concerns as raised to the very best of our ability. Members of the Executive Council present here, mayors and councillors will assist us during the deliberation in addressing your concerns.

Concerns that cannot be addressed immediately as in now, on spot, will be followed up and referred to the appropriate structures and departments for consideration.

We have a follow-up and feedback mechanism in place and will ensure that all the outstanding concerns are reported back to you in due course. The Provincial Executive Manager of my Department, Ms Zodwa Mabaso is here to take note of all your concerns for consideration.

Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa government was charged with the responsibility of pushing back the frontiers of poverty, underdevelopment and discrimination in the workplace. The government mandated my department in particular to change apartheid laws that subjected us and the people of this country to a life of hardship, misery and poverty.

Today I am particularly pleased to announce that in co-operation with stakeholders including organs of civil society, new laws have been passed to create a new South Africa free from oppression, systematic discrimination and suppression. Not only have we passed laws, but we also contributed to fighting poverty and underdevelopment.

The Department of Labour promulgated and effected amendments to several pieces of legislation in our country in a quest to provide a better working life for all our people.

The labour law amendments that we promulgated in August 2002, heralded yet another significant victory for workers and employers in our country. They are testament to the success of constructive social dialogue engaged in by all those committed to the betterment of workers' lives. I am particularly committed to the amendments as promulgated and I know that they go a long way to improve the efficiency of the labour market and promote employment creation. They provide for small business employer and vulnerable workers, to name a few imperatives, to have access to a speedier one-stop process of conciliation and arbitration for unfair dismissals and unfair labour practices. This corn-orb process allows conciliation and arbitration to take place as continuous process on the same day.

We also launched the new Unemployment Insurance Act and exactly a year later, we also included domestic and seasonal workers within the framework of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Today, domestic and farm workers can claim unemployment benefits when they are laid off duty on account of maternity, death, illness and adoption leave. However, the fund excludes those who are getting a monthly state pension, it excludes also those who are receiving payment from the Compensation Fund for injury on duty or illness. Those who resign at will are also not entitled to unemployment insurance benefits unless such a resignation could be deemed to be a constructive dismissal.

My department is responding to the urgent need of ending discrimination in the workplace. My department is prioritising the implementation of the Employment Equity Act to ensure substantive compliance.

The Employment Equity Act also provides that no employer should discriminate against a worker and or an applicant on the basis of HIV/AIDS. It provides that an employer may not have you medically tested to determine your HIV status unless so authorized and approved by the Labour Court. It is in that context that we have put together the HIV/AIDS Technical Assistance Guidelines to complement the earlier adopted 'Code of Good Practice on key aspects of HIV/AIDS and employment' of 2000.

But laws such as the Employment Equity Act do not work well if people do not have skills to do the job. It is for this reason that we have put a lot of emphasis on the implementation of the Skills Development Act and the Skills Levies Act based on the National Skills Development Strategy.

The Skills Development Act provides for the establishment of Sector Education and Training Authorities, of which there are twenty-five. Our only challenge is to ensure that they fully operate in all provinces like Limpopo. Although most of them are based in Gauteng, some of them are doing business in this Province. And my profound appreciation goes to Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA), Primary Agriculture, Education and Training Authority (PAETA) and Tourism Hospitality Education and Training Authority (THETA) for the job well done in this Province. They are involved in the much needed learnership training of the unemployed in this part of our country. I hope all other sector education and training activities will follow their example of ensuring a skilled nation.

We have joined hands as government departments with our social partners and other stakeholders in meeting the challenges of poverty, unemployment and discrimination. Some of our most prominent partners in the quest for poverty alleviation are the:

* Department of Health and Welfare - the department is a huge funder of many social development projects in the Capricorn district and throughout the province
* Department of Public Works - the Department of Labour (DoL) works in close collaboration with the Department of Public Works on Community-Based Public Works Programmes (CBPWP). As of the beginning of this financial year (April 2003), the DoL has already allocated R 1 987 035 to CBPWP
* National Development Agency (NDA) is also a strong supporter of rural poverty alleviation projects in the province
* Department of Provincial & Local Government - DoL works in close collaboration with DPLG for the identification, funding and skills development of Local Economic Development (LED) projects
* Premier's Office & United Nations Development Programme - the DoL has rekindled a working relationship with the Premiers' Office to institute skills development initiatives for projects under the programme called: "Sustainable Livelihoods for Poverty Reduction in Limpopo". This programme is co-funded by the Premiers' Office & UNDP with the aim of poverty alleviation in the province. Makgabeng village in the Capricorn District is the newest addition to the programme.

So far this year, 5 Local Economic Development (LED) projects have been funded for training to the tune of R 399 600.

During the Imbizo in Atok last year, I was fortunate to visit some of the projects. It is pleasing to mention that an amount of R 1 340 251 was spent for skills development in the Atok, Sekhukhune area during the 2001 - 2002 financial years. Trainees benefited from skills like business skills, electrical, textiles & knitting, computer skills, carpentry and livestock rearing.

All trainees are members of the community who utilise the local Multi-Purpose Community Centre (MPCC) to manufacture and sell their goods. They are engaged in sewing, knitting, manufacturing furniture and coffin making.

The Northern Province Roads Agency (NPRA) project is yet another huge contribution to poverty alleviation and upliftment of the infrastructure of the Limpopo Province. The Department of Public Works in collaboration with NPRA have engaged in a project that focuses on the rehabilitation of rural roads in the province and the maintenance of the roads thereafter. The project aims to facilitate access to rural villages. Community members were trained and placed at the various project sites. The DoL was responsible for training in courses like entrepreneurship, kerb laying and employment of labour to the tune of R1 110 206 in the Capricorn/Sekhukhune area. The project is envisaged to spread to other areas of the province this year and R 358 650 has already been committed for this year.

It was exciting to see the work of the Moletjie Rural Women's Initiative this morning. These women have been multi-skilled in entrepreneurship and basic bookkeeping (R 32 200) to ensure that they run their project effectively. If we continue in this manner, we will well see our NSDS targets of 54 % women trained and placed in social development initiatives.

In conclusion, I need to acknowledge the cooperation that my Department is enjoying from other government Departments in the province. You may have noticed that the staff of the Department of Home Affairs has brought their mobile unit to ensure that communities are able to apply for the ID documents on time for the elections in the coming year.

Ke a leboga.

Source: Department of Labour (http:/www.labour.gov.za)