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Cape Town - Cabinet has moved to quash speculation that South Africa's rigid labour legislation might be eased in the interests of job creation, following pronouncements on the matter from various quarters.
Briefing the media on Thursday following cabinet's regular Wednesday fortnightly meeting, government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi said cabinet wanted to "place on record" that the labour department was the lead department on all labour matters.
As far as cabinet was concerned, the only labour law amendments being considered at the moment were those being processed by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant through the National Economic Development and Labour Council processes.
"Cabinet reiterates that South Africa's labour laws are in compliance with the International Labour Organisation," Manyi said.
On August 15, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan suggested South Africa might have to relax its labour laws in certain cases to grow jobs.
"We may have to change the way we see the labour dispensation in South Africa," he told an internal auditors' conference in Johannesburg.
For example, a balance needed to be found to retain the jobs of 10 000 people working at clothing factories in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, while still allowing them to earn a reasonable wage and keeping the factories open.
Factories in the area have threatened to close down and relocate to Lesotho or Botswana if they were forced to pay minimum wages.
Gordhan said laws might also have to be relaxed to allow young people to enter the workplace and gain skills and experience at lower wages, but not at the expense of people who already had jobs.
Unless such changes are made, "we will not be able to make the breakthrough we need to create jobs in South Africa".
However, this would be done in the awareness of the struggle against apartheid for human rights, decent work, and decent wages, he said.
Two days later, former finance minister and now Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel appeared to endorse Gordhan's suggestion that labour laws might need to be relaxed to create more jobs.
In the National Assembly, opposition leader Athol Trollip asked Manuel whether he agreed with Gordhan's "assertion that we would have to look at restrictive labour legislation if we are to create more jobs in the economy".
Manuel replied that he had studied the text of Gordhan's speech, and this was but one snippet.
However, he then said: "I think all what he said is a position that I would endorse wholeheartedly. We must let nothing stand in the way of job creation in this country."
During the global financial crisis, the economy lost 1 million jobs, and according to Statistics SA, the official unemployment rate currently stands at 25.7%.
The new growth path envisages the creation of 5 million jobs by 2020, but the country needs to sustain annual growth of 7% for some time to alleviate unemployment.
Briefing the media on Thursday following cabinet's regular Wednesday fortnightly meeting, government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi said cabinet wanted to "place on record" that the labour department was the lead department on all labour matters.
As far as cabinet was concerned, the only labour law amendments being considered at the moment were those being processed by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant through the National Economic Development and Labour Council processes.
"Cabinet reiterates that South Africa's labour laws are in compliance with the International Labour Organisation," Manyi said.
On August 15, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan suggested South Africa might have to relax its labour laws in certain cases to grow jobs.
"We may have to change the way we see the labour dispensation in South Africa," he told an internal auditors' conference in Johannesburg.
For example, a balance needed to be found to retain the jobs of 10 000 people working at clothing factories in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, while still allowing them to earn a reasonable wage and keeping the factories open.
Factories in the area have threatened to close down and relocate to Lesotho or Botswana if they were forced to pay minimum wages.
Gordhan said laws might also have to be relaxed to allow young people to enter the workplace and gain skills and experience at lower wages, but not at the expense of people who already had jobs.
Unless such changes are made, "we will not be able to make the breakthrough we need to create jobs in South Africa".
However, this would be done in the awareness of the struggle against apartheid for human rights, decent work, and decent wages, he said.
Two days later, former finance minister and now Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel appeared to endorse Gordhan's suggestion that labour laws might need to be relaxed to create more jobs.
In the National Assembly, opposition leader Athol Trollip asked Manuel whether he agreed with Gordhan's "assertion that we would have to look at restrictive labour legislation if we are to create more jobs in the economy".
Manuel replied that he had studied the text of Gordhan's speech, and this was but one snippet.
However, he then said: "I think all what he said is a position that I would endorse wholeheartedly. We must let nothing stand in the way of job creation in this country."
During the global financial crisis, the economy lost 1 million jobs, and according to Statistics SA, the official unemployment rate currently stands at 25.7%.
The new growth path envisages the creation of 5 million jobs by 2020, but the country needs to sustain annual growth of 7% for some time to alleviate unemployment.
