3 August 1999
On 30 October 1998 employers, unionists, community representatives and government sat together to look at ways in which jobs could be created. Today, I want us to consider how far we have come, and yes, the journey that still undeniably lies ahead.
We are all concerned about the continued shedding of jobs throughout our economy. However, there are sadly no quick fixes to the complex array of challenges facing our country and our economy, not least of which is the high level of unemployment. It was indeed our determination to address this challenge which led to the convening of the Jobs Summit nine months ago and the reaching of a common understanding and commitment among all its participants to act to increase the number of jobs created in our economy.
The Summit recognised that our economy, in the early stages of a profound transition, faced the threat of a global economic crisis and resolved that continuing on the path of restructuring and strengthening our economy to promote growth, investment and sustainable employment was more important than ever before.
But the wide range of participants at the event were at one that this would not happen overnight. "We harbour no illusions about the difficulties ahead of us as we strive to succeed in this collective endeavour. Success depends on restructuring and building a vibrant and sustainable economy. Each and every one of us must be part of this work. It is not the work of the government or any one social partner alone. Through a commitment to work; dedication to learning and the acquiring of skills, spending and saving wisely; using our imagination; exhibiting entrepreneurship and by our disciplined consideration of the greater good; each of us can make our personal and collective contribution to the building of this new vibrant economy."
Within this context the Summit crafted and reached agreement on a wide range of policy instruments, programmes, projects and activities which would complement and enrich existing measures aimed at employment generation.
Since that time, the cabinet Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Jobs Summit has been meeting on a regular basis to ensure government meets its obligations regarding the agreements reached at the Summit and will, incidentally be meeting again tomorrow. Chaired by myself, this Committee is made up of the Ministers of Finance, Trade and Industry, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Agriculture and Land Affairs, Transport, Water Affairs and Forestry, Housing, Public Works, and Provincial and Local Government as well as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. A number of our other cabinet colleagues are also involved in ensuring the implementation of various agreements.
The Jobs Summit Supervisory Structure consisting of representatives of government, organised business, labour and the community constituency has been meeting regularly to monitor and review progress in implementing the Summit's agreements and will be meeting again next week.
My intention today is to touch on key areas of progress in effecting the Jobs Summit agreements. I will specifically focus on measures undertaken by my Department in collaboration with other national Departments and tiers of government, as well as with our social partners. My cabinet colleagues will in the next period provide further details of the measures undertaken by their respective Departments.
But allow me at the outset to put to bed any simplistic notion that unemployment has somehow been caused by labour legislation. We all accepted last year that the financial crisis in the East was principally responsible for the fall in the value of our currency. So the rising cost of imports that followed was not caused by labour legislation. We also all surely accept that workers and the laws that protect them are not causing the decline in the gold price. And rising requirements from the World Trade Organisation to lower tariffs and open our economy to increased international competition is hard to buck if we want to find new markets. But these external shocks to our economy are contributing to the employment crisis that we face - and we are all adversely affected.
However labour market policies do play their part, together with macro-economic and trade and industry policies, in defining the trajectory onto which we are placing ourselves. And today I want to stress those labour market measures that actively support job creation or job security and that support those affected by restructuring and job loss.
I believe that the Jobs Summit set in motion initiatives that hold the promise of demonstrating this very concretely. Take for example the case of the Integrated Provincial Projects that were a key innovation of the Summit. These projects, driven by the Department of Trade and Industry, are bringing together government departments responsible for infrastructure development (roads, ports, telecommunications and the like) with private sector investors and the community. My department is involved in helping to manage the process of registering and advising work seekers and helping them to enhance their skills to meet those required by the new opportunities.
Take the Eastern Cape's Coega project for example. Within the next three months there are going to be major new investments - R500 million for a new casino and R700 million for a new South African Breweries plant. Some 15 000 people will be employed in the construction phase. My Department has dedicated staff to work with this project on both a full-time and part-time basis. We are in the process of updating our IT infrastructure to manage the task. We are also in discussion with a number of Industry Training Boards. They are identifying the skills required by the investors and ensuring the quality of the learning programmes to which local people will be directed for training.
At Lubombo in northern KwaZulu-Natal a similar set of support measures are being put in place, although on a smaller scale. Again staff members are being dedicated to the project and funds are being allocated for training and development of local people. Discussions are underway with the Hospitality Industry Training Board to design learning interventions that support the tourism strategy of the area.
This alignment of labour market policies with industry policies is an example of precisely what the Jobs Summit set out to achieve. But perhaps a more dramatic example of the same alignment is that involving the business sector in Tourism Sector. You will remember that the business community undertook, at the Jobs Summit, to set up a Business Trust to fund work in the education sector as well as work in support of growth in the tourism sector. The Trust has been established and is finalising contracts with agencies to implement programmes in their identified priority areas.
The progress in the tourism sector is also an example of the way in which the partnership between government and business initiated by the Jobs Summit is able to realise the tourism sector's great potential for growth and job creation. This partnership has been cemented over the past period, with the signing of a formal agreement announced by the Ministry at the Tourism Summit in December 1998, the establishment of institutional arrangements, funding mechanisms and the development of business plans which will see a significant boost in the marketing of our tourism industry.
My Department is most heavily involved in the tourism sector in providing human and financial support to the planned 6 000 learnerships over the next three years. The programme aims to ensure that at least 70 per cent are placed in employment and at least 600 start their own small enterprises. Waiters, food preparers, tour guides, receptionists, housekeepers and the like will be prepared not only to do their jobs competently, but also to promote "Ubuntu - a service culture". This initiative aims to make tourists not only welcome - but to want to come back!
Also stimulated by the Jobs Summit was the Job Creation Trust sponsored by the trade union movement. The Trust announced last week that the Fund's coffers currently stand at R18,7 million. A technical committee has been set up to investigate specific criteria for project funding and requests for the submission of project proposals will be issued in early September. Projects funded by the Trust are expected to be launched early next year.
The bold tourism initiative is built on the experience of 250 learners in KwaZulu/Natal who successfully completed learnerships in the hospitality and building industries. Somewhat less dramatically, other learnerships in other industries are also being pioneered. The plastics industry has increased its training effort with dramatic results - and learnerships are well on the way in the textile, building and electrical industries to name but three. In the year 2000 it will become possible to report on the exact numbers of the learnerships as they will be formally registered with my department. To date a discussion document has been prepared and circulated by officials in my department in partnership with national constituency stakeholders to stimulate interest in this concept and to clarify some of the implementation details.
The Jobs Summit also resulted in the Social Plan Agreement. In the light of the restructuring that is currently underway in our society this agreement is about to be tested. The Social Plan Agreement notes that "Growth and job creation are urgent priorities, (and) the social plan approach aims to avoid job losses and employment decline wherever possible. There would nevertheless be instances where large job losses are unavoidable. In such cases the social plan approach will seek to actively manage retrenchments and to ameliorate their effects on individuals and local economies."
I announced last month a range of steps my Department has taken to implement the Social Plan. This includes the establishment of the Social Plan Technical Support Facility aimed at exploring alternatives to employment, as well as the establishment of Retrenchment Response Teams and other services provided in line with the Jobs Summit agreement in cases where jobs cannot be saved.
The Social Plan also envisages support for communities that have suffered a large-scale retrenchment, a process spearheaded by the Ministry for Provincial and Local Government in line with the Jobs Summit agreement on local economic regeneration. One such community is Mooi River, where a large number of workers were retrenched. The local authority, together with the Department of Provincial and Local Government, the Department of Labour and the provincial economic council are working together to identify new opportunities for income generation. My department will be assisting with the skills audit of the community as well as providing training to support identified areas of economic activity. Another example where training was provided to a community after retrenchment was in Welkom, Klerksdorp and Carletonville, where retrenchees are receiving training in courses such as pig-farming, plastering, welding, computer skills, etc.
A national steering committee consisting of national government departments, provincial task teams, relevant parastatals, organised business and organised labour has been set up to undertake this critical task and the Department of Provincial and Local Government is dedicating capacity to ensure the management and administration of this programme. The Social Plan Fund will provide R50 000 to municipalities to undertake local economic regeneration studies which will identify potential employment generating projects at local level. Already a variety of local economic development projects with potential for job creation and development have been identified.
The Jobs Summit Agreement identified that "training and the constant upgrading of South Africa's skills base is a fundamental requirement for a modern economy". The social partners called on government to "expeditiously pass the Skills Development Levies Bill" to provide additional resources to the task. In February 1999, the Bill was passed and the new levy is to be introduced next year to support expanded effort in this area. Government has committed R50 million to the National Skills Fund and this money is being used to support the training I have already discussed.
Cabinet has approved the establishment of a co-ordinating and monitoring mechanism within the Department of Labour to follow up on the implementation of the Jobs Summit agreements. This will contribute to improved co-ordination within government and between government and social partners.
Government's efforts towards job creation will no doubt be further strengthened by our new government's emphasis on the clustering of Ministries and Departments to ensure accelerated and integrated delivery.
Apart from important progress in the Integrated Provincial Projects, the Department of Trade and Industry has also completed groundwork in implementing the Jobs Summit agreements related to the Buy South Africa campaign, the strengthening of customs and excise and in the area of tariffs. A number of initiatives related to the promotion of small, medium and micro enterprises, a crucial vehicle for job creation and growth, have also been implemented, including in the areas of access to finance, the establishment of a National Mentorship Scheme and the provision of a range of services through a network of business service centres. Many of these services have specifically targeted rural women, youth and disabled entrepreneurs.
Housing: A National Presidential Lead Project
Arising from the Summit agreement to establish a National Presidential Lead Project to pilot sustainable and affordable mass housing delivery, including rental stock, the Department of Housing has selected a first group of three mass housing projects in Coega in the Eastern Cape, in Newtown, Gauteng and in Witbank, Mpumalanga, and is proceeding in line with its implementation programme. A number of other projects have been identified, including, as specified in the agreement, mass housing developments in SDI areas.
Social Security
Government has conducted an audit of the existing social security system and task teams have finalised a draft conceptual framework for an integrated and comprehensive social security system which is currently under discussion.
Education and Training
The Departments of Education and Labour and the Business Trust have begun to operationalise the Jobs Summit commitment to the building of human capacity development and interventions in schooling to improve the efficiency of the schooling system through reducing repetition rates, improving quality management in schools and enhancing the effectiveness of schooling.
Special Groups: Youth
The partnership between the National Youth Commission and the Departments of Education and Labour has led to a range of youth initiatives involving Youth Brigades, counselling and career guidance, a satellite programme for the rehabilitation of youth in prisons, as well as piloting learnerships in tourism in different provinces. The aim of the Youth Brigades is to provide a bridging mechanism to facilitate youth access to income generating opportunities through skills development and exposure to work experience and as a means to involve young people in public and community service. A proposal on the piloting of Youth Brigade projects in eight sites involving at least 2000 young people is currently under discussion.
Special Groups: Women
A range of programmes and projects have targeted measures to support the employment of women, including the Department of Welfare's Flagship programme for unemployed women with children under five and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's Water Supply and Sanitation and Working for Water projects.
The Department of Labour has initiated the development of a project on domestic workers involving stakeholders such as the domestic workers' union, the National Women's Coalition and industry training boards. The project, which has been approved by the National Skills Authority, deals with the location of domestic workers within an appropriate Sector Education and Training Authority and the development of a skills programme and career pathing for domestic workers in line with the National Qualifications Framework. The project also aims to facilitate the growth of SMMEs involving women in specific skills areas within the sector.
Commitments to the promotion and training of women in different sectors of the economy are being pursued in line with the implementation of the Skills Development Act and the Employment Equity Acts.
Special Groups: People with Disabilities
Government has pledged R8 million for mainstreaming people with disabilities in employment, education and training and entrepreneurship and a number of projects have been implemented to ensure people with disabilities have greater access to employment.
The president announced in his state of the nation address in June an initiative of the Department of Public Works, the National Youth Commission and the disabled to enhance access to and use of public buildings by people with disabilities.
The Department of Labour is involved in a number of skills development initiatives involving people with disabilities and is in the process of developing a long-term strategy to support initiatives that enhance human resource development, job creation and vocational rehabilitation as a mechanism to facilitate entry and adjustment of people with disabilities in income generating activities.
The Department of Welfare has also pledged significant resources to establish a programme to economically empower people with disabilities through enhanced access to jobs, entrepreneurship and education and training. Partnerships with bodies representing people with disabilities are being forged, including through a formal agreement with the SA Federal Council for Disability.
Special Employment Programmes
Government's special employment programmes, the Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme (CMIP), Working for Water, Community-based Public Works Programmes, Clean and Green Living Campaign and the Land Care Campaign are proceeding apace. These are providing short-term jobs linked to infrastructural development, many of them with a particular focus on women, youth and people with disabilities, and providing participants with training to access further employment. The special employment programmes are building partnerships across government and with social partners and in some cases linked to SDIs and local development initiatives aimed at creating sustainable job opportunities.
Matters on financing
Government has earmarked funds from the Poverty Relief Fund amounting to R1 billion for the year 1999/2000 as well as specific funds to line departments to implement government's commitments arising from the Jobs Summit declaration. Poverty Relief business plans have been appraised and recommendations forwarded to the Minister of Finance for approval and consideration by the Minister's Committee on the budget. The Minister of Finance will make an announcement in due course on additional allocations from the Poverty Relief Fund.
The Umsobomvu Fund has been provisionally registered as a Section 21 company, its purpose being to provide monetary grants for skills development or job creation projects of a national character. The process of appointing a Board of Directors is currently underway.
Conclusion
I have attempted today to paint a picture of the progress in implementing the wide array of projects and programmes arising from the Jobs Summit. Aspects of the work that has occupied government and our social partners over the past period has related to putting in place the concept proposals, business plans, institutional arrangements and capacity that is essential to ensuring that these are implemented in an accountable, transparent and effective manner. This has laid the basis for the road that lies ahead which, as I said at the outset, is still a long and arduous one.
However, as our President stated in his address at the opening of parliament on 25 June, job creation and the opening up of opportunities for all our people to earn an honest living remain matters of critical concern to government. We have both the will and the commitment to ensure that we move along this road in an accelerated manner, both through meeting the obligations to which we all committed ourselves nine months ago, as well as through the other means at our disposal in ensuring that job creation remains central to government's programme.