LETTER: Patel a destructive force in job creation

Hilary Joffe is absolutely correct that Cheadle, Haysom & Thompson was the engine room for the development of competition regulators (“The law firm that churns out competition regulators”, September 8).

One must not forget that that same law firm was the genesis of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA).  Today it is a world-class institution and has been the reason for much of the labour peace we experience in SA.

Over and above this, it was attorney Thompson who went off to Australia and was a great influence on its modern labour law system. Their contribution to labour law has been absolutely profound. 

However, we must not lose sight of the fact that employment & labour minister Ebrahim Patel has stepped in and is almost single-handedly trying to destroy not only the good work done by the law firm but has been an incredibly destructive force in job creation in SA. Patel’s department and our backward-looking government have been a direct cause of more than 11-million capable South Africans not being able to find jobs.

It is all well to look at the world through the prism of communist ideology, but when this leads to mass unemployment and starvation we all need to take a step back and look at how we can get rid of a government that is acting as a handbrake on the growth of business, and indeed job creation.

Michael Bagraim, MP
DA shadow deputy employment & labour minister

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