Press Statement dated 20 July 2018
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) will not participate in a Summit that has been called for by the SAFTU leadership this weekend. FEDUSA does not believe that such a politically driven gathering is the appropriate platform to address challenges facing workers. The SAFTU Summit has clearly been designed to upstage the Presidential Jobs Summit scheduled for September.
FEDUSA was in the forefront of lobbying President Cyril Ramaphosa – then Deputy President of the country – at the National Development and Economic Development (NEDLAC) Labour School in January to convene the Jobs Summit in order to address poverty, inequality and the current unemployment crisis which is now pushing the 30% mark even from the narrow definition of joblessness perspective.
“FEDUSA supports the announcement by President Ramaphosa to hold a Jobs Summit in September this year where leaders of organized labour, business and government will come together to discuss and strategize about job creation and the prevention of recurring retrenchments, said FEDUSA General Secretary Dennis George.
“Employment is central to human dignity, sustainability, economic development and social cohesion. Creating and increasing decent jobs in South Africa should be the most critical objective of social partners in NEDLAC. It is imperative for business, government and labour to work together in reformulating prospects of an immediate recovery of the labour market. Education, training and skills development should be used as mechanisms and assets of sustaining already existing jobs and these could enable the poor to take an advantage of any expansion in employment potential”.
FEDUSA is now fully involved in the five Working Committees that have been established by NEDLAC in preparation for the Presidential Jobs Summit by addressing the various sectoral challenges such as structural impediments to the entry of black businesses into the main stream economy, inclusive growth, skills training and aligning tertiary curricula with the needs of industry, youth and women unemployment and reviewing past Jobs Agreement to avoid mistakes of past efforts and learn from them.
Issued by Dennis George, General Secretary, Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa)