A South African business chamber urged the government on Thursday to rename two departments so that they could become more focused.
”We are working on a detailed proposal and we are going to submit it to the government. We feel it must be considered,” said South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) chief executive James Lennox.
He said the Department of Labour should be renamed the Department of Employment and Skills Development.
The Department of Trade and Industry should be called the Department of Enterprise and Empowerment.
A new department that should be created should be called the Department of Trade to deal specifically with international trade, Lennox told reporters at Sacob’s head offices in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
”The department should have the capacity to facilitate the coordination of national departments’ activities that impact on trade facilitation.”
He said the trade department should function along the lines of the European Union’s or the United States Trade Department.
One of the reasons Sacob proposed the changes is the confusion created by the Southern African Customs Union and the sectoral charters.
”We have sectoral charters: one excluding small business and the other including small business.
”It should be a requirement of any charter, and general legislation for that matter, to be supported by an independent economic impact assessment,” he said.
”The greater challenge in empowerment is the area of developing the informal sector initially through access to opportunities and incentives.”
Lennox further recommended the appointment of a Cabinet minister to help organise the Soccer World Cup in the country in 2010.
”Someone from Cabinet should manage this process because if we leave it to uncoordinated government departments we might have problems,” he said.
The spin-offs from the Cup will be huge, and it is largely for that reason the government should avail a minister to help organise the event.
”They [spin-offs] should be sustainable and to make sure that that happens, the government needs to allocate some resources,” he said. — Sapa