At the end of August this year, I attended an induction workshop and an engagement with the Department of Employment and Labour and its entities. The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Phumzile Mgcina was among those present.
The idea behind the workshop was to provide the new committee with information about the department and its entities in terms of their mandates, the legislation from which their mandates originated; the structure of the department and the entities; and their general performance during the five-year term.
Despite the enormous failure of most of the entities, the deputy minister commended the performance and praised the department for providing information that the new committee would need to honour its obligations to account to the committee.
Some of the committee members did raise queries and mention the various problems. Some of them even suggested changes to the legislation.
The department responded that it was proposing changes to pieces of the legislation and the changes would be prioritised over the next few months, before the end of 2024.
It is a crying shame to note that Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth has no background in labour or labour law and, likewise, there are only three or so people on the committee who have ever sat on the committee.
It is vital for legislators, MPs, to have a working knowledge of the labour law in order to give them a full understanding of why the changes are needed and how our labour laws have failed the people of South Africa.
The department presented documents timeously before the meeting but, on the second day of the workshop, it became clear to me that many of those attending had not even read the documents that were presented.
We need to remind ourselves, at this point, that unemployment in South Africa is one of the worst in the world, sitting at 41%. We also need to be aware that productivity in South Africa is the second worst in the world. The Department of Employment and Labour is answerable to the negative figures.
The role of our Parliamentarians and the portfolio committee is to exercise oversight on the department and the minister (and the two deputy ministers).
I am hopeful that as the committee matures into its position and knowledge is gained, the Government of National Unity will vigorously exercise the oversight capacity.
There is a new acting director-general of the Department of Employment and Labour, Sam Morotoba. He has at his finger tips, the founding legislation, commission and its vision.
The message to Morotoba is that the buck stops at his desk. The general performance of the department over the past five years has been weak and, quite frankly, destructive. When the director-general gave his overview of the programmes, he specifically pointed out the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Compensation Fund.
The two agencies are responsible for overseeing the money contributed by employers and employees and is supposed to provide compensation for disability, illness and death resulting from occupational injuries and diseases, respectively.
The director-general quickly glossed over the fact that the two entities, which interact with the public all the time, have failed the people of South Africa.
Thankfully, the acting director-general has recognised that changes need to be made and that they would have to embrace the GNU priorities.
At least Morotoba highlighted the key risks – delays in the modernisation of information communication technology service to meet the required standards.
He also mentioned unavailability of systems and large-scale interruption of digitally enabled services and economic activity. At last it was recognised that many employers do not comply with the labour legislation and that there was unreliable inspection and enforcement services.
Over 10 days, the State Information Technology Agency failed the department. The failure has left thousands of South Africans destitute.
Unfortunately, the inspector-general seems to be fixated on employment equity compliance and enforcement. Despite the numerous breaches of service delivery and breakdown of administration, there seems to be more interest in social engineering despite its failure.
At last in reporting back, the department did say that in 2023, it received complaints from people who were participating in community work programmes and EPWPs indicated that they wanted their incomes to be raised to be that of the National Minimum Wage (NMW).
The workers also wanted occupational health and safety benefits and statutory social security such as the UIF and the Compensation Fund.
It is extraordinarily strange that government enforces the NMW on the private sector but won’t adhere to it itself.
Despite many other drastic failures, I have a sense of change and positivity in the air.
I believe the Government of National Unity will at least start recognising the problems and hopefully during this five year term of office, the Department of Employment and Labour will start to tackle the failures.
* Michael Bagraim is a veteran labour lawyer.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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