Sihlalo ohloniphekile, ngicela ukuqala ngokuthi ngibonge uNgqongqoshe nethimba lakhe; uneqembu elikhethekile ngempela. [Hon Chairperson, firstly, I would like to thank the Minister and his team; you have a special team indeed.]
I've really enjoyed working with that team and thank you very much for that. I really do appreciate it.
Hon Chair, I congratulate the Minister on taking this debate seriously and sticking to the subject of the debate. I won't lower myself to the level of the hon Tobias-Pokolo, who wasted half her time talking about issues that were not relevant to the debate. [Interjections.]
Hon Chairperson, it is the stated intention of all state departments, quite rightly, to implement their respective mandates in a way that creates the most jobs possible. There are probably no other state departments that have a greater ability and responsibility to create the kind of economic growth that will lead to the creation of sustainable jobs than the DTI. Certainly, it is far more so than the Department of Economic Development, as well as the Planning Commission, both entities that, if anything, should be programmes within the DTI.
The capacity to effectively carry out its mandate is partly hamstrung because entities that should respond to the DTI have been transferred to the Department of Economic Development. An example of this is the Industrial Development Corporation, IDC, which the DTI still seems to look at as if it is one of their own entities. The DTI's Programme 4 is all about industrial development; why then move the IDC to the Department of Economic Development?
Time does not allow for a full-scale analysis and so I will look at a sector that has lost jobs and is set to continue to lose jobs unless there is a very brave intervention by the government. Here I speak of the clothing sector, and the cut-make-and-trim element in particular. This is an industry within which it is arguably the easiest and quickest to create a large number of jobs. But it is also an industry that has to be competitive with the likes of Bangladesh, China, Lesotho and Swaziland. Unfortunately for the unemployed South Africans who could be employed in this industry, it is an industry that is adversely affected by the impact of centralised bargaining through the Bargaining Council.
The majority of industrialists and employees in this sector have no direct influence on the decisions of the bargaining council, but despite this, they are bound by these decisions. The consequence of this centralised bargaining is that there are thousands of so-called illegal operations where, in order to compete, both industrialists and employees accept less favourable conditions of employment. The bargaining council is in the process of attaching the assets of the bigger, easily found so-called illegal textile factories, thus causing their closure and the loss of thousands of jobs.
I have spent hours on the streets talking to people who have recently lost their jobs in Newcastle and Madadeni because of the actions of the bargaining council. To the very last person they all said that they would like higher salaries but - and here is the rub - not if it meant losing their jobs.
Despite urgent approaches from the apparel industry over the last eight months, there has been no compromise forthcoming from government. This is largely because the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union, Sactwu, refuses point blank to find a workable solution that will retain the jobs that are now being lost. We are told that the line must be held, and that the unemployed must find a way of surviving without the jobs that are being lost.
It is somewhat curious that the SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union, which seems to be the stumbling block in saving jobs, is the previous stamping ground of both the Minister and the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, where both held high office.
Also of interest is that the provident fund of this organisation has apparently made loans of tens of millions of rands to entities controlled by the wife of the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, entities that the Deputy Minister himself was apparently previously involved in. This is the same provident fund that is now desperately trying to recover some R100 billion of its funds apparently unwisely invested.
Whilst the DTI indicates that it will continue improving incentive schemes to boost manufacturing capacity and support job creation in the textile sector, the incentive schemes, which are indeed well devised, are administered by the IDC, which now reports to the Department of Economic Development.
In addition, the IDC does not seem to have the capacity to handle these types of schemes that are geared to relatively small enterprises. As a consequence, the majority of apparel manufacturers are simply unable to access these schemes. Other apparel manufacturers have no way of moving from the so-called "illegal status" to "legal status" in order to be able to access the schemes, without being forced to shut down by the Bargaining Council in the interim.
This is a complex situation that has been brought about by state intervention. However, for the sake of tens of thousands of the unemployed, we have a responsibility to overcome the barriers that are causing job losses, as well as a responsibility to create new jobs. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]