422. Mr H B Groenewald (DA-NW) to ask the Minister of Labour:
What (a) achievements and (b) challenges did South Africa experience during
the chairing of the meeting of the Southern African Development Community:
Employment and Labour Sector? CW527E
The Minister of Labour Replied.
South Africa chaired the SADC-Employment and Labour Sector meeting in Cape
Town in 2009. The practice is that the country that host the session will
be the Chair and hands over the next year to the country that will host in
the ensuring year at the next session. In this case South Africa was the
Chair and handed over to Mozambique in April 2010 when it hosted the
session. Since then Namibia had been Chair in 2011 and currently Angola is
the Chair.
The achievements during South Africaâs chairmanship include:
ACHIEVEMENTS
During the year under review, measures were put in place to strengthen
institutional frameworks to facilitate programme implementation:
Two Tripartite Technical Sub-Committees as set out below were established
to address specific and specialized employment and labour issues:
o Technical Tripartite Sub-Committee of Experts on Social Protection;
o Technical Tripartite Sub-Committee of Experts on Employment and Labour.
⢠The 2009 session of the SADC Employment and Labour Sector also discussed
the progress made on the implementation of the AU Summit Declaration and
Plan of Action on Promotion of Employment and Poverty Alleviation in
Africa and the submission of the report to the African Union. The SADC-ELS
report focused on the following:
i. Policy actions taken by the Region to facilitate employment creation and
promotion of labour standards;
ii) Highlights on Tripartite structures for implementing the AU Ouagadougou
Plan of Action;
iii) Monitoring mechanisms put in place; and
iv) Constraints being experienced in the implementation process
⢠The session also considered the status on the ratification of the ILO
Core Conventions, a report of the SADC member states in the ILO Governing
Body. In this regard South Africa reported on activities in the ILO
Governing Body.
⢠Other matters dealt with include reports of the Social partners, ILO/SADC
Decent Work programme, and preparations for the ILO Conference in June
2009.
Challenges
The capacity of the SADC Secretariat to support the Employment and Labour
Sector has been a challenge
END