Politics Political Articles

On 28 August 2009 the Minister of Economic Development, Mr Ebrahim Patel, informed the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on South Africa’s response to the global economic crisis. He explained how the crisis came about and how it has affected South Africa as well as the global economy. He said that the full impact on South Africa was only reflected in the economic data from May. Economic growth slowed down dramatically and the manufacturing sector shrank by 20%. There were big job losses and credit became more difficult to obtain. The biggest losses occurred in the manufacturing sector. A Framework for South Africa’s response was developed and agreed to and certain measures announced to deal with the crisis. These include a “training layoffâ€? scheme, IDC support for certain vulnerable sectors, addressing customs fraud, debt management and measures to address the issue of food prices and anti-competitive practices. Minister Patel said that there was a lot of scope for well-thought through and well-run cooperatives in the economy. He said that government has decided on a public investment programme as one of the major measures for addressing the crisis. Government will spend R787 billion on improving public infrastructure. He said that there were tentative signs of economic recovery at the moment, but it was yet to be seen whether this could be sustained. Minister Patel also stated that agriculture and rural development were of critical importance for the government. Read this and other parliamentary reports on the South African Agricultural Business Chamber‘s website.

On 26 August 2009 the Department of Trade and Industry’s International Trade and Economic Development Division made a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and industry on opportunities and challenges facing South Africa within the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Developmental Agenda. Key issues addressed by the Doha Round included negotiations around industrial tariffs, agricultural tariffs and support measures, anti-dumping, countervailing measures, liberalisation of services, intellectual property rights, the environment, and trade facilitation. Mr Xavier Carim, Deputy Director General, Department of Trade and Industry’s International Trade and Economic Development Division, stated that there was some room for South Africa to improve agriculture’s contribution to the economy. There was also a presentation and discussions on the issue of regional economic integration in Southern Africa. This and other parliamentary reports are available on the South African Agricutural Business Chamber‘s website.

The Director-General of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform on 25 August 2009 made a submission to the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform on the comprehensive rural development programme and specifically the pilot projects in Giyani and at Riemvasmaak. Mr Gwanya explained that a detailed needs analysis was done at the pilot sites, which were identified in co-operation with the Premiers of the Northern Cape and Limpopo. Needs included things like access roads, housing, water, infrastructure, food security, agriculture, education, employment, health and community facilities. He explained that different government departments would now take responsibility for the different needs with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform playing a co-ordinating role. View the Agricultural Business Chambers’ reports on the on their website.

On 25 and 26 August 2009 the Portfolio Committee on Labour held public hearings on labour brokering. Various organisations including COSATU, FEDUSA, Women on Farms, Solidariteit, Association of Personnel Service Organisations, Confederation of Associations in the Private Employment Sector (CAPES), BUSA and others. There was a lot of focus on the negative aspects of labour brokering and examples were given of exploitative practices, also in the farming community. There were calls from particularly the trade unions to ban the practice of labour brokering altogether. Some presenters likened labour brokering to human trafficking. Organisations representing labour brokers emphasized the advantages of and the need for labour brokering. They pointed out that most of the labour broker organisations acted responsibly, exercised self-regulation and complied with requirements for skills training amongst other things. ANC parliamentarians in particular repeatedly asked why employers did not rather employ workers directly and seemed to grapple with who the employer was in a labour broking situation. Women on Farms stated that people employed by labour brokers for farm labour did not receive the minimum wage and were subject to abuse. CAPES proposed a public-private partnership to register labour brokers and regulate the industry. FEDUSA proposed that the industry should be better regulated rather than banned. BUSA made the point that; temporary employment services provided services that businesses could not provide themselves and employers did not have the capabilities to manage workforces themselves. BUSA also stated that organised business had grave concerns about the Department of Labour’s discussion document presented at NEDLAC. They felt that existing laws were sufficient to address abuses and that better enforcement of laws and co-regulation of the industry would provide solutions to the problems in the sector. View other parliamentary reports on the South African Agricultural Business Chamber website

On 19 August 2009 the new Department of Human Settlements briefed the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements on the new Housing Code that is currently being drafted by that Department as well as the Farm residence-housing programme. The Farm residence programme makes provision for models of ownership as well as rental options. View the parliamentary briefing report on the South African Agricultural Business Chamber website