Economy: Government to honour jobs summit commitments

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy, David Mabuza, will lead the government delegation at monthly National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) report-back sessions on progress in implementing agreed presidential jobs summit ‘interventions’, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch.  This is according to a media statement on yesterday’s National Planning Commission meeting with the President, when it was agreed that, as one of the Nedlac partners, government will ‘urgently’ attend to the ‘numerous’ public-sector-specific issues arising from the summit and apparently still requiring ‘action’ 10 months later.

Last Friday, addressing the media on an ‘update’ received from Nedlac on work under way to implement the summit’s framework agreement (eNCA), Ramaphosa said that – while ‘more than 70%’ of the projects concerned have reported on their activities, their ‘outcomes’ need to be improved. Calling on the social partners to ‘recommit to the systematic and speedy implementation of all … agreements reached at the job summit’, the President cautioned against delaying the process given the extent of the unemployment ‘crisis’.

Meanwhile, Business Unity SA (Busa) chair Sipho Pityana has reportedly ‘warned’ government that, unless it ‘confronts its problems’, it could be forced to approach the IMF for a ‘bailout’ – an eventuality Pityana described as ‘bitter, bitter medicine’ (Engineering News). In a letter to Busa members, he was apparently especially critical of government’s ‘unrealistic approach to (managing) the country’s growing debt burden’ and the slow pace of progress with implementing plans for restructuring Eskom.

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