Drew Forrest
THE National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) must serve as the economic equivalent of the World Trade Centre negotiations, says Nedlac’s newly appointed executive director Jayendra Naidoo.
This means mapping out “far-reaching, society-wide agendas, rather than getting bogged down in ad hoc trade-offs and short-term trouble-shooting”.
Speaking from Norway, where he is on leave, Naidoo said Nedlac’s other potential stumbling block lay in binding the constituencies of union, business, community and state representatives to agreements reached in the forum.
To be launched in February under legislation enacted last year, Nedlac will carry forward the work of the National Manpower Commission and the National Economic Forum (NEF), bringing together state, capital and labour in separate chambers on the labour market, trade and industry, and public finance.
A fourth chamber — on development policy — breaks new ground and will draw in previously neglected interest groups such as civics, rural organisations and the women’s and youth lobbies.
The genial and rotund Naidoo, whose Nedlac appointment was announced this week, is seen as well suited to the post. After cutting his teeth as a flexible and pragmatic negotiator for unions in the commercial sector in the early 1980s, he played a spearhead role in the forging of the National Peace Accord as Cosatu’s negotiations co-ordinator.
He has been involved in both the National Housing Forum and the NEF, and contributed to the formulation of the reconstruction and development programme.
Naidoo said he considers Nedlac vital to peaceful transition in South Africa: “If the unions pursue one wage strategy and business another, we’re heading for a train smash. The same applies if government goes its own way on trade policy.” The council has a number of matters on its immediate agenda, including the soon-to- be published draft Labour Relations Bill and the implications of trade liberalisation under GATT. But it will be of far greater benefit to the country if participants came with long-term agendas, Naidoo said.