STEEL and Engineering Industries Federation of SA CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba said on Wednesday that SA needed to face up to its labour rigidity and deal with it head on.
He also told the Vision For 2030 summit on the National Development Plan (NDP) in Johannesburg that the tripartite relationship between labour, government and business needed to be looked at again.
Adopted in 2012, the NDP is a strategic framework to inform government planning.
SA’s labour laws have been cited among the main factors stifling economic growth. Foreigners intending to invest in the country say labour laws are inflexible and act as a deterrent to foreign direct investment.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu)’s alliance with the ruling party has also been cited as one of the reasons the government is reluctant to review labour laws. Cosatu has yet to fully endorse the NDP, opting to support mostly the social aspects of the programme. It has rejected proposals to relax labour laws.
"We cannot forever explain our circumstances through the history we had," said Mr Nyatsumba. "We have to ensure there is a mindset across the spectrum that prioritises efficiency, (particularly) labour efficiency."
At the same summit, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe urged labour, business and the government not to treat each other with suspicion when it came to the NDP.
Many of the projects being developed to pursue NDP goals would be undertaken by private companies.
"The narrative gaining popularity that government is hostile towards the private sector, a narrative that I find quite curious...." Mr Radebe said.
The government was gearing up to spend hundreds of billions of rand in areas such as infrastructure, "many of which are structured and financed" by foreign and local investment companies, including banking institutions.
In many ways the government was "learning by doing", and the plan was for all sectors of South African society, not just the government.
Labour and civil society were annoyed by companies "deliberately failing to meet black economic empowerment and employment equity obligations, the flaunting of wealth by the rich … and paying obscenely high salaries to business executives", Mr Radebe said.
This generated anger in "those who toil every day for wages hardly enough to cover transport costs".
Kaizer Nyatsumba. Picture: SUNDAY TIMES
STEEL and Engineering Industries Federation of SA CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba said on Wednesday that SA needed to face up to its labour rigidity and deal with it head on.
He also told the Vision For 2030 summit on the National Development Plan (NDP) in Johannesburg that the tripartite relationship between labour, government and business needed to be looked at again.
Adopted in 2012, the NDP is a strategic framework to inform government planning.
SA’s labour laws have been cited among the main factors stifling economic growth. Foreigners intending to invest in the country say labour laws are inflexible and act as a deterrent to foreign direct investment.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu)’s alliance with the ruling party has also been cited as one of the reasons the government is reluctant to review labour laws. Cosatu has yet to fully endorse the NDP, opting to support mostly the social aspects of the programme. It has rejected proposals to relax labour laws.
"We cannot forever explain our circumstances through the history we had," said Mr Nyatsumba. "We have to ensure there is a mindset across the spectrum that prioritises efficiency, (particularly) labour efficiency."
At the same summit, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe urged labour, business and the government not to treat each other with suspicion when it came to the NDP.
Many of the projects being developed to pursue NDP goals would be undertaken by private companies.
"The narrative gaining popularity that government is hostile towards the private sector, a narrative that I find quite curious...." Mr Radebe said.
The government was gearing up to spend hundreds of billions of rand in areas such as infrastructure, "many of which are structured and financed" by foreign and local investment companies, including banking institutions.
In many ways the government was "learning by doing", and the plan was for all sectors of South African society, not just the government.
Labour and civil society were annoyed by companies "deliberately failing to meet black economic empowerment and employment equity obligations, the flaunting of wealth by the rich … and paying obscenely high salaries to business executives", Mr Radebe said.
This generated anger in "those who toil every day for wages hardly enough to cover transport costs".
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