Hon Speaker, the EFF rejects this Budgetary Review and Recommendation, BRR, Report of the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour as if this department does not exist. More than 10 million people mainly youth and willing and are looking for work cannot find work. Companies are retrenching workers everyday.
ArcerlorMittal is retrenching as many as 2 000 workers presently. Sibanye- Stillwater Gold Mine is retrenching more than 10 000 workers. Even banks who are making profit are retrenching workers. More than 15 000 people are at risk of losing their jobs in the banking sectors.
Even state-owned entities like Eskom, SA Airways, SAA, Transnet and Denel are also retrenching workers.
The ruling party has no believable plan to stop these retrenchments or a plan to create new jobs. We as the EFF have asked the Minister of Employment and Labour, Mr Thulas Nxesi a question for a written reply: If whether government will ever introduce the Job Protection Bill? He said no, because the current legislation is enough.
This is how, detached, irrational and reckless our so- called leaders are.
Hon Speaker, we have an economy that put the interest of the so-called investors above everything, including human life.
Labour inspector function has completely collapsed. Workers are abused, raped and dismissed without due processes. While in many cases, they work under bad working conditions without anyone to intervene.
Transformation, especially in the private sector has failed. White men continue to dominate senior management positions. Now, the purging of black professionals in the state-owned enterprises by the Minister of Public Enterprises means that less and fewer opportunities for blacks to get employed are reduced drastically. Here we are adopting the BRR which is the divorce from the reality.