The question is often asked whether the government should not simply be allowed to govern. ”Surely that is what they are elected to do?” people ask.
The National Economic, Development and Labour Council’s (Nedlac) origins lie in the struggle against apartheid, against unilateral government decision-making and in the calls from all sectors of society for decisions to be made in a more inclusive and transparent manner. It emerges out of a recognition of the importance of seeking consensus on major economic, social and development policies to ensure their success.
The benefit of this is not only to enhance the legislative process, but to help create buy-in from the stakeholders when it comes to implementing changes in policy or new legislation.
It is important to remember that Nedlac is only one part of the policymaking and law-making process. However, the forum that Nedlac provides — for business, labour and community organisations to interact with the government on aspects of socio-economic policy — is an important element in terms of deepening democracy beyond a ”once-in-five-years” voting opportunity.
There is no perfect social dialogue model, but there are principles that can help make it more effective.
The first is that where there is a common purpose and vision, a smoother negotiation process is possible. This has been demonstrated in Nedlac by the talks on the Growth and Development Summit, where the negotiations leading up to the agreement were relatively short, but built on several years of moving towards a common purpose.
The second is that the policymaking and consensus-seeking process is enhanced if stakeholders participate early in the process. Clear and realistic deadlines reduce ”process turbulence”, which can take up a lot of time and energy unnecessarily.
Thirdly, it is important that time for mandating within constituencies, consultation and decision-making must be taken into account, otherwise the outcome of the process cannot be implemented.
Apart from increasing participation in socio-economic decision-making, Nedlac also performs the function of holding constituencies accountable for commitments that they have made. This is going to be vital in the post Growth and Development Summit period. Constituencies are going to have to act on the commitments that they have made, and Nedlac provides a forum where the stakeholders in the economy can monitor each other in terms of their progress. On several levels pressure can be brought to bear on the various constituency representatives to produce evidence of the gains that have been made in acting on their commitments.
Finally, it is important to emphasise that Nedlac does not seek to replace Parliament in any aspect of its functioning. Its mandate is to ”strive to promote the goals of economic growth, participation in economic decision-making, and social equity; seek to reach consensus and conclude agreements pertaining to social and economic policy; consider all proposed labour legislation relating to labour market policy before it is introduced in Parliament; consider all significant changes to social equity and economic policy before they are implemented or introduced in Parliament and to encourage and promote the formulation of coordinated policy on social and economic matters”.
This is what Nedlac is called to do, and what Nedlac does best.
Herbert Mkhize is executive director of Nedlac