I withdraw, House Chair. Thula! [Be quiet!] [Laughter.]
House Chairperson, issues were raised, particularly by the DA, on the closure of the Gauteng labour centres. We will need to gather that information and find out which labour centres those are so that we can follow that up. On the issue raised by hon Mncwango pertaining to new labour centres in KwaNongoma, we hope the members of the portfolio committee will support us when we request the Treasury to give us more funding so that we can establish more labour centres. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, on the Regulatory Impact Assessment, RIA, on the four Bills, plus one that is before Parliament, I think, hon members, I am not sure whether you really want the Minister to come and say this is what is happening in terms of the RIA report. When you tabled those amendments, the RIA report was also there. I don't know which RIA report you want. In fact, I hope you are not being misled by the businesses, in particular those who were always saying we need to start afresh to do RIA but were part and parcel of those discussions at Nedlac and did not even raise those issues. I will appeal to the members not to allow themselves to be misled.
Chair, regarding the issue of collective bargaining, I have said we are going to have a collective bargaining indaba. Now, I want to appeal to the members to avail themselves and go and participate there.
Chairperson, to hon Motau, hon Kganare and the hon Van der Westhuizen, it is very problematic when you are not always being told that you are a Shadow Minister, because in terms of being a Shadow Minister you just look like ...
... isithunzela, into engathi ayinangqondo ebekwa nje laphaya ilokhu ijika ishona le nale ihamba nesithunzi. [Uhleko.] [... a zombie; a mindless object that is just kept and then made to move around aimlessly with its shadow. [Laughter.]]
I think that is the reason why you come here and raise those issues. I am not talking to both of you. I am just talking to these hon members. [Interjections.] In your dreams ... [Interjections.] ... I therefore request the hon members that maybe we need to continue ...
... siyophuza ikhofi mhlawumbe ngizokhuluma nani kahle njengoba nicela njalo. Manje sengizovuma-ke ngoba angikaze ngavuma ngaphambilini ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[... we are going for coffee and maybe I will attend to you afterwards, if you ask me properly. I think I will agree to it now since I have never done it before ...]
... so that I can guide you. I also appeal to the chairperson of the portfolio committee to co-ordinate or convene a workshop so that the members can be taught about the laws of this country, including the Constitution itself. It is unfortunate that hon Kganare talks about the unions, particularly the federation Cosatu. As hon Manamela has said, when you launched Cope, you said you would ...
... nizokwenza ukuthi kube nenyunyana yabasebenzi ezoba ngaphansi kukaMhlonishwa u-William Madisha noMhloshishwa u-Sam Shilowa. [... establish a labour union that would be led by the hon William Madisha and the hon Sam Shilowa.]
It is unfortunate that you do not recognise that you are where you are because the ANC, together with its own alliance partners, recommended that your skills should be recognised. For example, the former member, Mr Shilowa, was just a security person but he ended up being a Cosatu general secretary. Therefore, maybe you are in a better position to say what was happening during those days. Then it is clear that we were doing the work on your behalf, without you having an understanding of what you were doing.
Hon Dudley, unfortunately, I now know for the first time that you are a member of this committee but I can't even remember you attending the committee meeting. You come here and said I was on holiday during the strike that took place in November in the Western Cape. It is clear that some of you don't understand the international participation of South Africa, particularly International Labour Organisation, ILO, where the Department of Labour is a member state. At the time I was attending the ILO governing body and also the round table discussion on social protection and youth employment conference, which was held in Paris under the G20 countries. South Africa is the only country that sits there. Unfortunately, if I attend these conferences, I don't go for shopping - maybe you do. You must ask one of your members, who is a former member of the Portfolio Committee of Labour, who participated from day one with all the members who were in Geneva, until the last day. Unfortunately, you are not a member of that committee. By the way, you are the ones who support the budget of the Department of Labour and that department also indicates how much we are going to spend in our international programme.
Hon Motau also raised the issues related to Minister Nzimande, Minister Pravin Gordhan and Minister Davies; I think he was on the wrong platform at the wrong time. He raised the issue of the Compensation Fund to be administered by the Treasury. It is clear that you don't even have an understanding that the Compensation Fund does not come from the MTEF but is a contribution by the employers specifically for those workers who are injured at work. Those are the things that we have to take you through so that you can have an understanding. It is only organised labour that can decide who should administer those funds.
Regarding the issue of Marikana, firstly, you must understand the situation in that particular area and what the cause of the unrest was. The unrests were not caused by organised labour but they were caused by the company itself by identifying eight workers and promising them that they were going to increase their salaries to R12 500. That is why they were demanding that particular amount. It is very sad, hon members. I think you must listen and listen very carefully. [Interjections.] Hon members, you must be well aware that at Lonmin in particular the CEO is earning R854 000 a month and rock driller is earning R6 000. [Interjections.] Other people that were employed by the subcontractors were even earning less than R5000. That is why we have proposed that we need to deal with the issue of abusive labour brokers.
Okunye Sihlalo weNdlu wukuthi kunezingxoxo eziqhubekayo phakathi kwezinyunyana zemboni yezimayini kanye nazo zonke izinkampani zezimayini ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Another issue to consider, Chairperson of the House, is that of the negotiations that are going on between the mineworker unions and the mining industry ...]
... in particular when it comes to stability in the mining sector, the issue of wages ... [Interjections.]