South Africa’s previous growth period had “not been strong on job creation” and growth is still slow by international standards, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.
“The responsibility of business is to grow and to create jobs. The role of government is to create the conditions to encourage the kind of growth that creates jobs,” said Zuma at the Presidential Summit on Job Creation, held in Pretoria.
He said the government was implementing policies for job creation, including fair labour practices.
A further meeting on this was planned for April 19.
But he was told shortly afterwards that the country’s proposed labour laws were “an antithesis of job creation”.
Business Unity South Africa president Futhi Mtoba said the experience of business during the recent economic recession in dealing with “the inflexibility of our labour market” had left its mark.
“This inflexibility was manifested by protracted and costly negotiations with the labour unions.
‘Cautious’
“Now, with recovery in sight most employers are very cautious as they expand their work force. The proposed labour law changes are an antithesis of job creation. These changes will not promote employment and constitute a full frontal assault on competitiveness,” she said.
The summit had originally been set down for March 10, but was, according to Zuma, postponed by the government in order to deal with the crises in North Africa and the Côte d’Ivoire.
Top members of Zuma’s Cabinet were in attendance as were business leaders.
Mtoba also urged government to create a climate of “certainty and predictability”.
“Certainty and predictability make investment decisions easier. As such we need to promote certainty and predictability.”
She said that reversing job losses in the mining sector would require that investors have a long-term title to their claims as well as a reliable supply of electricity.
Referring to rural development she said: “We need to accept that promoting jobs in agriculture and agro-processing will require certainty of land tenure and rural infrastructure development.” — Sapa