Minister Nxesi’s remarks at the Inaugural Workers’ Month Elijah Barayi Lecture

Banner of the National Department of Labour together with the South African flag

15 May 2024

Protocol:

• Programme director

• Mr President

• The Premier

• The Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal

• The Barayi Family

• Ministers, deputy ministers and senior officials

• The President of COSATU, leaders and representatives of labour, business and the community

• Students present here today

• Ladies and gentlemen

We are meeting on this occasion, during the 30 Year Anniversary of South African Democracy and in Workers’ Month (May), for the Inaugural Elijah Barayi Lecture. This is an initiative of government and the Department of Employment and Labour to recognise the contribution of organised labour to the struggle for democracy and human rights in the years before 1994, as well as to the ongoing development of worker rights and labour legislation in the years since.

The Department of Employment and Labour will continue to present public lectures, diversifying topics to cover emerging issues such as the impact of technology on the future of work, gender equality in the workplace, and the challenges posed by informal employment.

Government has deemed this Workers’ Month as a time when the Department of Employment and Labour should highlight the labour dispensation that has been

legislated since the advent of democracy, including the

following:

• Labour and trade union rights and a robust system of collective bargaining and conflict resolution – all enshrined in the Labour Relations Act;

• A set of minimum working conditions and standards – encapsulated in the BCEA (Basic Conditions of

Employment Act);

• The Employment Equity Act and regulations to encourage employers’ hiring practices to reflect local

and national demographics;

• The COIDA (Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act and regulations to promote safe workplaces.

• Social dialogue mechanisms led by NEDLAC (National Economic Labour and Development

Council) – hailed as a major achievement by the ILO (International Labour Organisation);

• The National Minimum Wage Act which set at threshold for wages, immediately uplifting the wages

of 6 million workers when it was introduced in 2019.

I should mention that the Minimum Wage was one of the first pieces of legislation enacted by this Administration under the leadership of President Ramaphosa. The President has also exercised leadership on issues of eliminating gender violence and harassment in the workplace and the impact of new technologies on the world of work, and the need for human-centred solutions

and just transitions.

Cast your minds back to the 1980s: a young lawyer making career choices – perhaps to join a law firm and make money. Or rather, to devote your talents to the uplifting of your people, and of the exploited mineworkers in particular.

To move among the miners organising, mobilising, taking their demands to the employer – culminating in the mighty 1987 mineworkers strike – the costliest strike in the history of the country – a strike which announced to the employers, the country and the world that workers would not take their exploitation lying down; that they would organise and take action to gain their rights.

And from the struggles and the organisations that emerged came the legacy of progressive labour

legislation that was to follow. This is a precious legacy. It must be guarded at all costs.

As you know, Elijah Barayi was elected as the first President of COSATU at its founding conference and

launch in Durban in 1985. He was also one of the founding leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982. Cde Barayi is a fitting representative of a generation of leaders which emerged – in the workplaces, in the communities, from the faith organisations and from the schools and universities – to lead the struggle against apartheid for human rights and freedom. From the unions this combined with a commitment to labour rights and improved socio-economic conditions.

It is fitting that this Inaugural Elijah Barayi Lecture should be delivered by the President of South Africa –not only because it lends prestige and gravitas to this occasion – but also because President Ramaphosa – or Comrade Ramaphosa at the time was an integral part of these struggles – as a founding member and the first General Secretary of NUM (the National Union of Mineworkers) and a founding leader of COSATU – he is uniquely placed to comment on the life and times of

Elijah Barayi.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to invite the President of South Africa, Mr Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa to deliver the Inaugural Elijah Barayi Lecture.