Reg Rumney speaks to the Jayendra Naidoo, director of the National Economic, Development and Labour Council, which will be launched tomorrow.
The very name of the National Economic Development and Labour Council portends one of its first problems.
Quite simply, there are high expectations that this statutory successor to the National Economic Forum and the National Manpower Commission will bring consensus and clarity where now there is none.
Cosatu has already promised to bring before Nedlac, “the need to completely overhaul the method for determining inflation as well as proposals to address the massive racial and income inequalities inherited from apartheid.”
This week Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg said he would ask the council to look into the creation of a national export strategy.
In terms of the Act which created the council, bearing the inelegant acronym Nedlac, it is statutorily obliged to consider all changes to labour legislation and all significant changes to socio-economic policy before it reaches parliament, a tall order.
As executive director Jayendra Naidoo, agrees there is a temptation to see Nedlac as a danger and to use it as a dumping ground for every problem. But one of the big differences between the council and the NEF it replaces is that Nedlac will have a defined agenda.
Nedlac is not the NEF part two, he stresses. Many of the weaknesses of the NEF will be avoided, including having to operate in crisis mode, as it did in dealing with the petrol price increase.
Naidoo warns against expecting quick agreements. It has taken six months to negotiate the creation of the council: it may take another three months to set priorities.
Former Cosatu negotiating co-ordinator Naidoo, carefully uses the neutral, technical jargon of negotiation rather than the rhetoric of a union organiser.
He smoothly produces a definition: “Nedlac is a negotiating body of government and civil society in the broadest sense which seeks to find co-operation and agreement that would enable a process of social and economic transformation to be carried out.”
Nedlac will not only take over the work of the NEF and NMC, but will inevitably co-ordinate the work of various other forums that sprang up post-1992 as stakeholders sought to find common ground on electricity, housing, local government and the like.
The NEF and other forums did, says Naidoo, achieve difficult agreements, even though they were not always in the short-term interests of every forum member.
For example, the NEF managed to agree on an increase in petrol prices — unavoidable to prevent the collapse of the regulatory system, says Naidoo — when the previous government was facing political resistance to do so, even though this necessary step was hardly to the benefit of most businesses or to union members.
The NEF also agreed what South Africa would propose to the world policeman of trade barriers, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in the way of reductions in protective tariffs, and on job-creation programmes.
The negotiation process, however, has been fragmented, with each forum dealing with different issues, and much time being taken up with discussion of jurisdiction, making it complex to get mandates from constituencies.
Sectoral interests came to the fore. So with the electricity, local government and housing forums there was clear overlap in several areas. This led to a contest between the forums about whether electricity distribution should stay at the municipal level or be done at a national level.
The idea of Nedlac is to have a central forum, with a much more ordered process of negotiation, likely to get better agreements and a better chance for the constituencies to be mobilised and organised.
>From the government’s side Naidoo says that there was a need to rationalise forums after the elections to pursue its commitment to the reconstruction and development programme.
Nedlac has sought, says Naidoo, to include all credible national democratic organisations. The unemployed are not organised. Consumer groups can also seek participation, though consumer bodies in South Africa may be small lobby groups rather than representative organisations, mandated by the consumers. And non-member organisations can make representations.
In the end it is government’s task to represent the unemployed, and it has a commitment through the RDP to do that.
Also, Nedlac will include “community” representation, says Naidoo.
Community representatives will be appointed by Minister without Portfolio Jay Naidoo, from a list of community organisations which will have to prove they are “democratically constituted”.
A procedure for selection of the community delegates will be outlined at the launch.
Naidoo agrees that it is essential for participants in the council to be representative because the aim of the council is to reach binding agreements. The community will only be represented in the development chamber, and the executive council.
There will be three other chambers: public finance and monetary policy; trade and industry; and labour legislation.
The community representation, aside, how representative of South African society can Nedlac be, given the diversity within constituencies?
Naidoo says Nedlac will not dictate the composition of constituencies, though any constituency might exert some subtle form of influence to ensure it is talking to the right people.
On the government side, ministers, deputy ministers and directors general will represent socio-economic ministeries such as labour, trade and industry, finance and mineral and energy affairs.
Labour will provide representation from major union groupings Cosatu, Nactu and Fedsal.
Community representation will be constituted after the official launch.
Finally, one has to see Nedlac as the most inclusive negotiating forum possible under the circumstances, says Naidoo.