Category: Industry

With transformation in South Africa’s labour market continuing to progress at a snail’s pace, government should consider reviewing legislation in an effort to achieve the desired outcomes, says Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi.

This comes in the wake of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) 21st report, which paints a bleak picture of the country’s labour force.

“It cannot be business as usual. I strongly believe that the time has come to re-strategise [and] adopt a different path to ensure that the Employment Equity Act achieves its intended objectives.

“It is evident that self-regulation has not worked and more aggressive strategies are required to reach the intended purpose, including reviewing of legislation,” he said.

The CEE document, released on Friday, states that in the past year, the CEE recorded a decrease of 492 (1.8%) in the number of reports received. In 2020, the Commission received 26 635 reports, compared to the 27 127 in 2019.

Of these, 43.8% were from Gauteng, followed by 20.8 % in Western Cape and 14.8% in KwaZulu-Natal.

With 18.3%, the manufacturing sector accounted for the most complaints. Wholesale and retails, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles followed with 14.4%.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing account for 14.3% of the reports, while 9.4% came from construction.

Just over 2530 reports were received from the private sector covering 5 108 149 employees in 2020, which amounted to 95.1% of all the report received.

In a continuing trend, 64.7% of top management positions were occupied by Whites. This was in pale comparison to the 15.8%, 10.6%, 5.7% and 3.1% filled, respectively, by Africans, Indians, Coloureds and foreign nationals.

In this regard, males occupied 75.1% of these positions, while females 24.9% filled the remaining 24.9%.

Africans occupied 60.8% of the positions in national government while whites occupied 67.8% of the positions in the private sector.

CEE chairperson Tabea Kabinde said transformation in the country continued to be too slow, especially in the top and senior management.

Despite progression snags, in the past three years, significant increase of representation of the African population at senior management had improved.

“For the first time in three years, it’s sitting at an increase of 1.2 percentage points, which is very good. There’s still an insignificant increase of representivity of women at top and senior management. We know that in top management we get 0.5% while at senior management we had 0.4%.

“The situation in the professionally qualified occupational level much more palatable, with the African population at this level increasing by 3.5% in the past three years.”

Kabinde said the question remained as to why there is an increase of designated groups and a more or less better representation at middle management but this is just translating into an increase at senior and top management.

“Could it be true that there is a glass ceiling designated at middle management that owners and captains of industry do not trust black people enough to allow them to take the reins of the control of their organisations because real control begins at senior management so this picture is really telling us it’s still a story and it remains concerning for us,” she said.

With self-regulation having not yielded any positive results in transforming the labour workplace, the Employment Equity Amendment Act has been presented to Parliament in an attempt to fast track the desired results.

The amendments are expected to empower the Minister to put in place sector-specific targets – including compliance certificates – which the Commission believes will be a game-changer.

Nxesi expressed dismay at the dire statistics, saying the report should serve as a wakeup call.

“It is clear that we remain a very unequal society, particularly in the upper echelons of our economy. It’s clear that this is unacceptable, it is disconcerting to say that while you consolidate 27 years of democracy, 25 years of our constitution, and 23 years of the Employment Equity Act, we are still lamenting the snail’s pace of transformation of our labour market.

“We have economic power but there’s no economic power.”

He said the time has come for government to acknowledge that it had to address the imbalances of the past to uplift the most vulnerable groups.

“We should acknowledge where good progress has been made in relation to the representation of designated groups – blacks and women – in the economy.”

This much was evident in the progressively improving statistics in age and group in the middle tiers of the workforce, particularly middle management, the professionally qualified and junior management.

However, he said it was critical to seek answers as to why insignificant progress has been made in the key strategic occupational levels – top management and senior management.

Source: South African Government News Agency

Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, has appealed to university chancellors to join hands with government in finding solutions to funding for the “missing middle”.

“Although the debt profile of students is something that needs to be better understood, it is presumed that much of the debt is carried by missing middle students, both current and past students,” Nzimande said.

Nzimande made the call at the launch of the Chancellors’ Forum of all 26 public universities in South Africa.

Addressing the hybrid Chancellors’ Forum launch and roundtable discussion comprising Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, Chairs of Council and Student Representative Council (SRC) Presidents of South African universities, Nzimande said although the office of the chancellor has no executive powers, given the context of the higher education system, the chancellor’s role is “more than just being a titular head”.

“The chancellor participates in outreach and philanthropic initiatives. The chancellor acts as an ambassador for the university, advocating to raise its profile, and advancing its interests nationally and internationally,” the Minister said.

The “missing middle” comprises students who do not meet the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) financial eligibility criteria, but still struggle to afford higher education.

Nzimande said there are different estimates of the numbers of students in this category, as the institutions do not have accurate socio-economic data. However, the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) appointed in 2016 estimated the figure to be approximately 20% of undergraduate students.

“Greater in-depth analysis and data collection is necessary to understand better the issues facing students who fall outside NSFAS eligibility and are self-paying. It is also difficult to know how many students are not accessing public higher education at all, because of financial difficulty,” Nzimande said.

He said stakeholders must take into account the substantial changes in the student funding environment since 2018, the student debt issues in the system, and many other demands on State funding for higher education and training, including postgraduate funding support, as well as the fiscal context.

Other initiatives implemented by government to support poor and missing middle students include:

• In 2016, there was a 0% increase on university tuition fees. The funding to cover this came primarily from the State;

• In 2017 and 2018, tuition fees increased by a maximum of 8% across the system, in accordance with an agreed compact across the system;

• In 2019-2021, tuition and accommodation fees were agreed to in terms of a CPI-linked compact;

• The department is working on a fee regulation policy framework, to be introduced for the period 2022-2024;

• In 2019, Nzimande approved funding for transfer to NSFAS to address the historic debt of NSFAS qualifying students registered in 2018, following a due diligence process announced at the time of the announcement of the new bursary scheme. This process is being managed by NSFAS with the support of universities.

In approving the reprioritisation of funds from the department’s budget to support the NSFAS shortfall for 2021, Cabinet, in March 2021, requested the department to conduct a policy review of student funding.

The Minister said he will present the policy review to Cabinet at the conclusion of this process.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Commission has highlighted the need for information dissemination and a real focus on skills development as two major pillars to facilitating youth participation in the mainstream economy.

The commission on Friday held a virtual youth dialogue under the theme, ‘Promoting economic inclusion and youth employment’.

The national chairperson of the Black Management Forum’s Young Professionals, Classi Kgopa, who participated in the dialogue, said in order for economic transformation to take place meaningfully, support is needed across the board for youth to succeed.

“South African youth lack opportunities to participate openly in the economic mainstream. There is still a lack of black ownership in large entities [in industries] such as agriculture, transport and finance,” Kgopa said.

Kgopa bemoaned the fact that only 9.2% of South African youth are involved in entrepreneurial activities, and that the majority of them are not listed on the JSE.

Despite this, Kgopa is optimistic that the tide can change if finance institutions ease access to funding, which are needed to oil youth-owned enterprises.

He backed calls for the creation of entrepreneur incubation programmes across the provinces as a means of assisting young people to be actively involved in the economy.

“It is time that young people rise and claim [their] position… in economic transformation, and they need to be supported across the board,” Kgopa said.

The dialogue was held as South Africa marks Youth Month. The B-BBEE Commission said the dialogue was born out of the need to debate issues that are becoming a barrier to transformation, inclusion and employment for young people, which remains a major concern in the country.

Source: South African Government News Agency

The Department of Employment and Labour has announced that it is widening its investigation into the R219 million COVID TERS payments made to the Eastern Cape Transport Tertiary Co-operative (ECTCC).

This follows complaints from taxi drivers in Gqeberha, who recently claimed to have never received benefits claimed on their behalf.

In a statement, the department on Thursday said this was determined after a follow-up meeting with taxi drivers, taxi associations, the regional leadership of South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) and the ECTCC.

“During the meeting, the Unemployment Insurance Fund revealed that it has paid up to R219 million from claims received from the ECTCC, which were submitted on behalf of 62 employers, including taxi associations,” the department said.

The meeting was organised by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality executive Mayor, Nqaba Bhanga.

Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) ICT Business Development Deputy Director, Viwe Gqoli, in the meeting revealed that the ECTCC initially submitted six COVID TERS [Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme] claims covering 4 089 employees. Almost R20 million was consequently paid.

“In Gqeberha, we paid a total of R23 778 937.29 to Port Elizabeth & District Taxi Association and Uncedo Transport and Business Taxi Association, covering 5 472 taxi drivers. A total of 62 COVID TERS claims submitted on behalf of various employers by ECTCC were paid to the tune of R219 million and these payments covered 48 441 employees”, said Gqoli.

The UIF informed the meeting that it had blocked further payments to the ECTCC due to ongoing investigations.

“ECTCC appealed to the department to unblock the outstanding payments and consider re-opening the TERS system for them to lodge further claims.

“The department informed the meeting that law enforcement agencies have been roped in to assist with the probe into the matter and until that is finalised, no further payments can be made to ECTCC,” the department said.

It said it was committed to efforts aimed at bringing peace and stability in the taxi industry in the Nelson Mandela Metro and is prepared to work with all stakeholders to prevent further taxi protests in affected municipalities in the Eastern Cape.

Source: South African Government News Agency

With South Africa experiencing the third wave of COVID-19, Acting Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, has called on the business sector to comply with the Alert Level 3 regulations as the country continues to fight the pandemic.

“Taverns, shebeens, bars and alcohol establishments have become super spreaders themselves because [there is] no social distancing, we need to manage the number of people that go into these facilities, we can do better,” Ntshavheni said on Thursday.

Addressing a media briefing following law enforcement operations to monitor compliance with COVID-19 regulations at Pretoria taxi ranks, the Minister urged the liquor industry to enforce the regulations at its establishments.

“We understand that we need to balance saving lives and saving livelihoods. We need to try as a nation, business, government and society to [avoid going] back into a hard lockdown so that we can save jobs.

“If we all play our part, we will defeat this pandemic, we will make sure that [the] economy remains open and we will all be safe. If government is given a choice to save livelihoods or to save lives, we will choose to save lives because livelihoods we can rebuilt and lives we cannot rebuilt,” Ntshavheni said.

She commended the taxi industry for ensuring compliance with regulations.

During the ongoing operations to monitor compliance with government regulations and directions as the country remains under Level 3 lockdown of government’s risk adjusted strategy, Ntshavheni was joined by Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula, Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Jacob Mamabolo and Gauteng MEC responsible for Health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi.

“In playing our part towards halting the rapid spread of the pandemic, it is important that we strengthen compliance with health protocols. We have always made a commitment that we will not allow any mode of transport to be the enabler of the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.

“We have put strong measures in the transport sector, which include capacity restrictions. While these have contained the spread of the pandemic through your taxis, we are under no illusion about the devastating impact these had in your business,” Mbalula said.

Non-pharmaceutical measures that South Africans can comply with to prevent the virus include social distancing, wearing cloth masks to cover one’s nose, mouth and chin, washing hands with soap for 20 seconds, and or using a 70% alcohol-based sanitiser.

Mbalula said government remains encouraged by the co-operation, support and innovative leadership shown by the taxi industry in ensuring the safety of the commuting public and adherence to the rules.

“As a sector, we carry the burden of enabling economic activity whilst containing the spread of the virus. The 2020 National Travel Household Survey tells us that the market share of the taxi industry in transporting workers has increased from 67.6% in 2013 to 80.2% in 2020,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala says the time has come for the province to produce goods in the townships and villages of the province for itself, and the rest of the world.

The Premier was speaking at the launch of a massive rollout of R300 million Operation Vula Fund disbursements, held in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday.

The programme forms part of the province’s efforts to create jobs and grow the economy.

During the launch, Zikalala handed over various equipment and business instruments worth over R300 million to successful beneficiaries of Operation Vula Fund.

These included catering equipment, vehicles, computers, and farming implements.

Over the next few weeks, the Premier and members of the provincial executive council (MECs) will visit various districts to handover equipment and business instruments to enterprises who had successfully applied for Operation Vula Fund support.

Zikalala said equipment with a combined value of R300 million will be disbursed to over 1 000 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) who have been selected as successful applicants.

“To date we have approved a total 1 021 applications with a value of R299 157 million. Of these successful applications, 923 were in Tier One which disbursed equipment and instruments not exceeding R200 000.

“In Tier Two there were 11 successful applications where equipment disbursed ranges between R200 000 and R500 000. There were 87 successful applicants in Tier 3 which disbursed instruments whose value ranges from R500 000 up to R2 million,” Zikalala said.

The Premier added that the disbursements of Operation Vula Fund equipment will serve as a major boost to the province’s job creation and economic recovery efforts.

Zikalala said the projection was that the Operation Vula Fund disbursements will help create and sustain no less than 10 816 jobs.

He noted that, of the successful applicants, at least 42% are businesses owned by young people under the age or 35, while 49.5% are women-owned.

The Premier also warned that beneficiaries are not allowed to sell the equipment, noting that in the event that a business collapses, the equipment will have to be returned to the government.

SMMEs play critical role in job creation

Sharing the Premier’s sentiments, Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Ravi Pillay said SMMEs have a critical role to play in the creation of jobs.

“In developed countries, up to 80% of the jobs are created by SMMES. This task that the beneficiaries have, is a critical one for the future of our province and our country,” Pillay said.

Pillay also stressed that his department will monitor progress and offer support to the beneficiaries.

“As a department we want to come and visit you to see how you are doing. Firstly, we will want to see that the machinery is there and is being used for the purpose for which it was requested.

“Secondly we want to see how you are developing to become a successful enterprise. We will look at the operational side, the financial management side and also access to markets,” Pillay said.

Zikalala and Pillay said that unsuccessful applicants will be contacted, and will be assisted with improving on areas that led to their applications being unsuccessful.

Source: South African Government News Agency