Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, guests and friends, last week I again had the privilege of casting my democratic vote on who should govern. This has not always been the case in South Africa. Just 18 years ago, the majority of South Africans couldn't do that.
However, regardless of the outcomes, victory always goes to this democracy that was created by the ANC. We should all celebrate this democracy, because working together, we really can do more.
It is only through democratic consensus that progress can take place. The massive number of job losses that this country has experienced over the past two years has led to the untold suffering of those families that now have none or very little income. This government has put in place some very comprehensive measures to try to alleviate this problem.
One of these initiatives is Productivity South Africa. This institution strives to make businesses more productive and, as such, stay in business. Countless jobs have been saved by the interventions of this important entity. It is vital that countless more jobs are saved, and this can be achieved by the allocation of more funds to Productivity South Africa.
I feel honoured to be giving this speech during workers' month. In his welcoming address to the 25th anniversary of Cosatu celebrations on 4 December 2010, the general secretary of Cosatu said:
We are workers of South Africa, united under the banner of Cosatu. We are the creators of the wealth that is enjoyed by a small minority, which has hijacked the wealth we create for their private use.
This statement is true. How many of you South Africans think that gold and platinum just pop out of the ground in shiny blocks, packaged, weighed and stamped? Who do you thing builds your fixed assets, generates your products? Who do you think ploughs the fields, sows the seeds and harvests the food? Men of South Africa, when you get home in the evening, who do you think cleaned the house and fed the kids? Workers are the creators. Workers do the work.
In South Africa there is no black or white, there are just haves and have- nots, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Everything that was and that will be manufactured, cleaned and produced, has been and will be manufactured, cleaned and produced by workers. Workers do the work.
An informed working class will never democratically choose a system that doesn't protect workers' rights. That is why, with foresight and vision, the ANC-led, Nelson Mandela government created the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Nedlac. The Nedlac founding declaration states:
The National Economic Development and Labour Council is the vehicle by which government, labour, business and community organisations will seek to co-operate, through problem-solving and negotiation, on economic, labour and development issues, and related challenges facing the country.
Nedlac will conduct its work in four broad areas, covering public finance and monetary policy, labour market policy, trade and industrial policy, and development policy. These four broad areas exist in Nedlac as the public finance and monetary chamber, the labour market chamber, the trade and industrial chamber and the development chamber. It is in these chambers that decision-makers from business, labour and government need to congregate, engage and debate until consensus is reached.
We cannot afford to have junior officials representing business, government and labour in Nedlac. This Parliament expects decision-makers with a rank not less than deputy directors-general to attend chamber meetings.
These deputy directors-general representing various government departments and their peers within business and labour must work tirelessly to reach consensus on issues raised in Nedlac. South Africa, it is your collective ability to reach consensus that gives us as South Africans a moral authority greater than anywhere else in the world.
Nedlac was established on Saturday, 18 February 1995, in Midrand, Gauteng, by the then Mandela administration in order to unite South Africans in dialogue and help create a nonracist, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.
It is vital that this institution gets more resources, including the recognition of its strategic importance to further the aims of the national democratic revolution. These resources include the ability to attract and employ skilled professionals and retain them. More financial resources must be given to Nedlac so that the institution can keep up with the demands placed upon it and effectively render the mandated obligations.
The total budget for Nedlac for the 2011-12 financial year is R24,8 million. This is clearly not enough money for an organisation that is expected to facilitate consensus between organised labour, organised business, government and community organisations around public finance and monetary policy, labour market policy, trade and industrial policy and development policy. More money needs to be allocated to this vital institution as soon as possible.
The ANC's position, as stated on the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the ANC on 8 January 1994, by the then president Nelson Mandela, was:
It is critically important that the trade union movement should continue to make its contribution to the development of a national consensus with regard to the objective of building a prosperous economy which would end unemployment, provide a living wage for all, raise levels of productivity and international competitiveness and ensure proper participation by workers in decision-making in their places of work.
Nedlac is vital, because debate is the only way to reach consensus. In general, organised labour engages the employer through a middle structure - the Bargaining Council. When it comes to peaceful engagement in South Africa between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, Nedlac is the point of the sword.
Business, labour and government need to make Nedlac a major priority. A broad spectrum of consensus needs to be met in order to help achieve our developmental state. Working together we can do more.
South Africa, if Nedlac fails, we all fail. "Working together, we can do more" are not just words. The ANC government has established this institution for exactly that purpose - working together for the betterment of all South Africans and the creation of a nonracist, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa - prosperous for everyone.
The DA's "half a loaf is better than none" position sounds very similar to that infamous quote just before the French Revolution: "Let them eat cake". This of course is coming from an organisation that doesn't have a labour policy in their so-called open, or what we have now come to call "opportunistic", society plan. We all know what happened shortly after "Let them eat cake" was repeated over and over again to the poorest of the poor.
It is only through consensus between decision-makers representing the constituencies of government, labour and business that we can genuinely transform our society from haves and have-nots into a nonracist, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. It is only through consensus that we can create a better life for all; because working together we can do more. Thank you. [Applause.]