Johannesburg - Better living conditions were needed in the mining sector, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said yesterday.
“All of us need to do what we can to re-introduce stability… so that part of the community can continue to create jobs, continue with investments… but also give workers better living conditions,” he said at the collective bargaining conference held by the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) in Roodepoort.
“I think we are not working hard enough to address the migrant labour issues.”
John Brand, a director of law firm Bowman Gilfillan, also said that average workers, particularly in the mining sector, felt alone because the government had neglected their needs.
“The average worker feels that they have been deserted by the government, unions and employers… and that nobody cares,” he said.
“We have to find a way of driving collective bargaining back into the workplace.”
Often too much emphasis was placed on the monetary wage rather than the social wage. He said social wage deprivation had built up as mineworkers went home to a shanty or a rundown establishment, with no electricity and sometimes no proper sanitation.
The social wage – the amenities provided from public funds, such as health care, education and sanitation – needed to be addressed.
Income gap
The wage gap between executives and average workers continued to grow. Gordhan said Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba was working on a document on acceptable wage gaps between workers and executives. It would be ready soon.
Economist Mike Schussler told delegates that South Africa was a middle-income country in which only 59 percent of households had someone working. He said the country needed to look at how poverty could be eradicated.
Vic van Vuuren, the International Labour Organisation director for South Africa, said the country had a huge social deficit. People had to support the National Development Plan (NDP), which aims to eliminate poverty and inequality by 2030.
“I don’t believe we have given enough credence to the NDP,” he said.
Conditions
He said workers, particularly on the mines, needed better living conditions.
Gordhan, who will deliver his Budget speech next week, said debate on the NDP was finished and the time had come for implementation.
He said everyone was looking for economic growth. “Every pundit has a formula in their back pocket. As we go into the elections, every political party will say it has a formula.”
Michael Spence, a US economist and Nobel laureate in economic sciences, also addressed the conference. He was the chairman of the Growth Commission, which brought together policymakers, academics and businessmen to examine growth and development.
Spence said the commission came to the conclusion that there was no magic formula.
Gordhan said structural economic transformation was needed to ensure high levels of growth and inclusivity.
He attacked the negligible representation of Africa on the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), based on the quota system. He said Africa had only two members out of 24 on the board. The 14th round of IMF reforms had been concluded without much benefit to Africa.
“The two seats on the board of the IMF that Europe had promised to give up did not go to Africa, but went to bigger emerging countries. Here you can see geopolitics in play.”
Quota
The quota system in the IMF is the amount of money a member can draw, based on special drawing rights and the size of its gross domestic product.
He spoke about the Group of 20 summit to be held in Sydney this weekend, saying the global economy and its rebalancing would be discussed, along with the mobilisation of capital for infrastructure development in emerging countries. - Business Report