LETTER: Legislation a brake on job creation

An enormous amount of the much trumpeted “social compact” has been left to be debated in the National Economic Development & Labour Council (Nedlac). Yet when Nedlac was challenged at a parliamentary portfolio meeting on employment and labour about these debates a rather fuzzy answer was given.

As South Africans, we are excellent at discussions, negotiations, mediations and thereafter more discussions. One of the most important, and dare I say extremely urgent, problems is unemployment. We are the worst in the world when it comes to unemployment.

Most economists and commentators will tell you that employment must be created by small businesses to ensure we bring the unskilled and new entrants into the market as soon as possible. Even our previous finance minister was well aware that the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to ensure small businesses could employ more people was to uncouple small business from the bargaining council system.

I deal daily with numerous small business owners, who all inform me that they would employ more people if they were not bound by the onerous regulatory authority of our labour legislation. It does not need talk shops to at least get us going, and for small businesses to prove they will open up their doors given the right circumstances.

SA’s labour legislation is proving to be a handbrake on any sort of job creation, which would at least help the president show the country that the unemployment disaster is starting to turn around.

Michael Bagraim, MP
DA deputy shadow employment & labour minister

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