Programme Director:

President of the PSA: Mr Justice Shiburi

Chairperson of PSA: Mr Refitlhile Baloyi

General Secretary of the Public Service Association: Mr Rueben Maleka

Members of the National Office Bearers and leadership of the Public Servants Association,

General Secretary of FEDUSA: Ms Rietdha Adjam General Secretary –Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC)-Mr Frikkie de Bruin

General Secretary –General Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council -Ms Sharlaine Oodit

General Secretary –Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council -Mr Mpumelelo Sibiya Representatives of organised labour and our social partners, Distinguished delegates and members of the Public Servants Association,

Comrades and colleagues, Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a privilege to address the Public Servants Association at this important Congress. The PSA has a long history within South Africa's public service and in the development of organised labour. Its presence today is part of a broader democratic tradition in which workers, employers and government engage, negotiate and seek solutions to the challenges facing our country.

Our system of social dialogue is under pressure, and we should acknowledge this honestly. At the same time, tension in social dialogue does not mean it has failed. Our responsibility is to strengthen the institutions and relationships that enable us to manage disagreements and develop common solutions.

Our constitutional order places labour relations at the centre of our democracy.

Section 23 of the Constitution protects fair labour practices, freedom of association, the right to organise, the right to strike and the right to collective bargaining.

South Africa has also ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, as well as Convention 144 on tripartite consultation. Convention 87 protects the right of workers and employers to establish and join organisations of their own choosing, free from interference by public authorities. Convention 98 protects the right to organise and bargain collectively, including protection against anti-union discrimination and interference in union affairs.

These commitments give us important rights, but they also impose responsibilities on all social partners to sustain the institutions through which those rights are exercised.

Social dialogue, institutionalised through NEDLAC, remains an important component of our democratic architecture. It provides a structured forum for government, organised labour, organised business and community constituencies to deliberate on matters affecting our economy and society. The strength of social dialogue lies in bringing together diverse interests, including when those interests are sharply opposed.

We cannot discuss labour relations without confronting the labour market conditions in which workers and unions operate. The second-quarter 2026 labour market figures remind us of the scale of the challenge. South Africa has approximately 8.5 million unemployed people, an official unemployment rate of

33.6 per cent and labour underutilisation of about 46.3 per cent.

Young people carry a particularly heavy burden. Millions remain outside employment, education or training, which is why 2026 has been declared the Year of Putting Young South Africans to Work, in honour of the 1976 Youth Uprising Golden Jubilee.

This challenge demands more than government programmes. Therefore, it requires employers willing to create opportunities, unions prepared to organise and represent workers in evolving forms of employment, and government capable of creating the conditions for decent and productive work.

The Department of Employment and Labour is therefore strengthening the Labour Activation Programme to focus on demand-led skills, workplace experience and enterprise-led employment. The programme is targeting 200,000 unemployed people in the current financial year, with 70 per cent of opportunities directed towards young people.

The Employment Services for South Africa system is also being strengthened as a national platform to connect job-seekers with employment opportunities, with the objective of registering more than one million job-seekers during 2026/27.

These interventions cannot replace economic growth and job creation, but they can strengthen the pathway from unemployment to employment. They also require cooperation among government, business, organised labour and training institutions to have a lasting impact.

We are also reforming labour legislation. Amendments to the Labour Relations Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the National Minimum Wage Act and the Employment Equity Act are being advanced through NEDLAC within its mandate.

The Employment Services Amendment Bill is also before Parliament and introduces measures to regulate the employment of foreign nationals, strengthen public employment services and expand the functions of the Employment Services Board.

These reforms respond to constitutional developments, evolving forms of employment and practical weaknesses identified through experience. They address issues such as employee status, benefit funds, collective bargaining, dispute resolution, labour inspection and protections for vulnerable workers.

Our courts have also reminded us that labour law must continually respond to constitutional values.

In Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour, the Constitutional Court addressed unequal parental-leave arrangements and confirmed that labour legislation cannot maintain distinctions that unjustifiably discriminate between categories of parents. The judgment shows that labour law reform affects how families organise work and care, and how equality is realised in everyday working life.

In Mahlangu and Another v Minister of Labour and Others, the Constitutional Court addressed the exclusion of domestic workers from compensation protection. The Court's intervention affirmed the need to extend social protection to workers historically excluded from its benefits. Both judgments therefore illustrate why labour legislation must continue to evolve in response to constitutional principles and workers' lived realities.

Legislation, however, has limited value if it is not effectively enforced.

The Department currently has approximately 2,300 labour inspectors serving a labour market of more than two million companies. Through Project 20,000, we are working to recruit 10,000 permanent labour inspectors while strengthening digital and hybrid inspection systems.

This is particularly important in sectors where workers are vulnerable to exploitation and where inadequate enforcement can undermine the rights that legislation is intended to protect.

Migration is also part of this conversation.

Recent developments have firmly placed labour migration at the centre of the national debate. South Africa has a legitimate responsibility to enforce its immigration and labour laws, protect employment standards, and prevent exploitation. The Employment Services Amendment Bill and the National Labour Migration Policy are part of that response.

The National Labour Migration Policy, in particular, aims to provide a coherent framework for managing labour migration that supports economic development, protects the labour market's integrity and safeguards the rights of all workers, regardless of origin.

At the same time, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration is implementing the Five-Point Plan on Migration Management, which includes stronger border management, modernised systems, attention to legal and policy gaps and cooperation with neighbouring countries and international partners.

As the government, we believe that enforcement must remain lawful, constitutional and humane. Workers with uncertain immigration status can be particularly vulnerable to exploitation because they may fear reporting abuses or approaching authorities.

Protecting labour standards requires action against employers who exploit workers, while ensuring that migration enforcement remains the responsibility of lawful state institutions.

Unlawful conduct has no place in labour market enforcement. The state must enforce the law through lawful institutions.

We should also speak carefully about the recent developments involving the PSA and the Registrar of Labour Relations.

I do not intend to relitigate the merits of those proceedings from this platform. What matters for our democracy is that disagreements concerning public power and institutional decisions can be taken to court and that courts remain available to provide appropriate remedies, including interim relief where the legal requirements are met.

That is not a weakness of democracy, but it is evidence that democratic institutions are functioning. The measure of a healthy democracy is not the absence of conflict. It is whether conflict can be processed through institutions that remain legitimate, accessible and accountable.

Our labour institutions remain central to that process. The CCMA, bargaining councils, the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court provide established mechanisms through which disputes can be addressed. They are not perfect, and we must remain willing to improve them, but they remain indispensable to workers, unions, employers and the state.

The law gives us remedies, while social dialogue gives us the relationships through which the work of governing the labour market continues.

We should therefore resist the temptation to treat institutional disagreement as evidence that the democratic settlement itself is broken.

This is why we must not allow present tensions to become a permanent fracture.

We should use this moment to renew the social compact that has helped make South Africa's system of social dialogue a key feature of our constitutional democracy.

Social dialogue is not about winners and losers. It requires negotiation, respect and a willingness to recognise that no constituency can address unemployment, inequality, skills shortages, workplace insecurity and economic transformation on its own.

The responsibility is particularly significant for public servants. The public service is not simply another workplace. Its workers translate constitutional rights and government programmes into services that reach communities.

That is why meaningful collective bargaining and constructive engagement are essential. Workers must be heard, but the government must also be able to govern. Employers must be able to operate, but workers must be protected. Our task is to balance these interests in pursuit of social justice and decent work.

President, delegates and colleagues,

The choice before us is not between conflict and consensus. Healthy democratic institutions must allow room for disagreement. The question is whether disagreement weakens our common institutions or strengthens them through lawful engagement, honest negotiation and reform.

Let us therefore use this Congress to reaffirm our commitment to social dialogue and collective bargaining.

Let us strengthen the enforcement of labour standards, protect workers while responding to new forms of employment, address migration through law rather than prejudice, and create stronger pathways for young South Africans to enter decent work.

Above all, let us ensure that our labour institutions remain accessible, credible and responsive to the people they serve.

If we do that, the present period of tension will not define our social dialogue. What will define it is how we respond to the challenge before us and whether we have the courage to renew the social compact underpinning our democratic labour-relations system.

I thank you.​

​​​