Chairperson, hon members and hon Ntwanambi, in the course of doing its business, government does interact, formally and informally, with individual and organised business formations. In the majority of cases, these engagements occur at three levels: firstly, at the level of policy formulation at Nedlac; secondly, in the context of implementing our industrial policies; and, thirdly, in pursuance of economic diplomacy.
As far as I'm aware, no structure of organised business has raised any concern with regard to their interaction with government. As a matter of fact, government enjoys good working relations with organised business and other social partners. To illustrate this point, hon members may be aware of the collaborative effort of government, business and organised labour in responding to the effects of the recession. This multiple-stakeholder leadership group led the process of developing and implementing the framework response to the economic crisis, which was launded by many observers as a unique initiative.
This is but one example of the co-operation that we have with businesses and organised formations. Therefore government does value and cherish relations with and contributions of all social partners who are rolling up their sleeves in pursuit of social and economic transformation. I thank you.
Sihlalo, Phini lika Mongameli, njengoba kubonakala ukuthi uhulumeni uyakwazi ukuxhumana nosomabhizinisi baqhube ezinye izinhlelo, ngaphezulu kokusebenzisana kukahulumeni nosomabhizinisi, ngabe zikhona yini ezinye izinhlelo eziqhubekayo ezihlanganisa nomphakathi? Ngiyabonga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Mr D D GAMEDE: Chairperson and Deputy President, it is clear that government can link up with businesses and conduct other programmes. Besides government working with businesses, are there other programmes currently under way that involve communities? Thank you.]
Hon Chairperson, as I have indicated, government interacts formally with sectoral formations through Nedlac, as well as through the presidential working groups that are focused on specific challenges at a given time. So, indeed, there are areas where, together with organised business, we collaborate in terms of projects in specific areas. Thank you.
Chairperson, the Deputy President mentioned the framework of response to the global financial crisis, which was formulated in collaboration with Nedlac, and the successes of that programme's response. My question is: Does the Deputy President believe that there were problems in the design of the training lay-off schemes, specifically as reflected in the low take-up rate and low response rate from business?
Hon Chairperson and hon members, the framework agreement was put together by a structure that is representative of all sectors - that is communities, organised business, organised labour and government. The training element in this structure was primarily aimed at addressing the challenge of job cutbacks in those companies that would have been in distress.
About R6,2 billion was set aside to assist companies that were in distress. Some of them took advantage of the availability of this fund in order to avoid retrenching workers. However, in other industries it was not that easy to avoid job cutbacks precisely because those industries were directly affected by the decline of demand on a global scale.
Therefore the design of the training programme was adequate. In my view, it's something that would be useful even beyond the recession period. Technically, we are now out of the recession. However, as we all know, the process of economic recovery continues to be affected by other economies. We know that in Europe now PIGS - that is Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain - are sinking deeper into an economic crisis which will impact on other markets that would also have a slowdown effect on our recovery possibilities. Thank you.
Chairperson, there is a database of the youth who have graduated from the various tertiary institutions. That database was used by the former youth agency, but it has subsequently been transferred to the National Youth Development Agency.
That database reflects the youth who have qualified in various disciplines from the tertiary institutions in South Africa. That was for the purpose of ensuring that business is able to access skills and also to assist the youth by recruiting them from the relevant database. I would like to find out if the government is still using the same database, whether it has been discontinued, or whether there are moves aimed at improving the database. Thank you.
I am not sure whether that's a new question or not. To me it looks like a new question altogether. But if the Deputy President is ready to answer, it is fine; I don't have a problem.
Chairperson, I agree with you; this is a new question. As hon Montsitsi has indicated, the database that was in the possession of Umsobomvu and the SA Youth Council would have been passed on to the National Youth Development Agency. Therefore it would be available to any interested party that needs to access that information.
I don't have the exact details. All I can indicate is that we are working with the Minister of Higher Education and Training to look into the programmes of addressing this challenge of unemployed youth. There are about 3 million unemployed youth, some with tertiary education-level qualifications and others in need of further training. The Minister of Higher Education and Training is definitely looking into ways of addressing that challenge. Thank you.
Systematic review of structure and operations of Public Service, and engagements regarding service delivery
9. Mr M H Mokgobi (ANC) asked the Deputy President:
(1) Whether the government has undertaken any systematic review of the structure and operations of the Public Service since the 2009 elections; if not, why not; if so,
(2) whether the government had any engagements with senior government officials at all spheres of government regarding concerns raised by communities on the (a) pace of service delivery in some areas and (b) ways of ensuring that the Public Service remains development-oriented, credible and an efficient mechanism of implementing the political objective of addressing the needs of the people; if not, (i) why not and (ii) to what extent will the National Planning Commission assist in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?