Programme Director: Advocate Mzisa

Inspector Genaral: Ms Aggy Moiloa

CDPO: Mr Tshepo Mokomatsila

Our Officials from the Department

Home Affairs Provincial Manager: Mr Albert Matsang

Officials from Home Affairs

Employers

Organised Labour Representative (FEDUSA): Mr Tumi

Ladies and Gentlemen

Linda Lambert states thus: “One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever”. Our convergence here presents us with an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations. You would be forgiven to think that sometimes we talk too much and we do not act enough. I firmly believe that in a country like ours, where there is a myriad of socio-economic challenges, the value of engagements cannot be over-emphasised. We need to talk to one another from time to time. Our Department should not be seen as a scare cow. We are your friend and we can be your worst enemy if you do not comply.

Tasked with a duty to respond to our constitutional and legal framework, the Department of Employment and Labour pledges to be responsive at all times with regards to holding advocacy sessions such as this one. Program Director, our session is preceded by an unparalleled effort wherein a number of inspections were conducted throughout the country. Gauteng is the last but one province, to be on the receiving end of these inspections. To avoid working in silos, I need to emphasise that these are multi-governmental and coordinated activities. I am indebted to SAPS, the Department of Home Affairs and relevant Bargaining Councils for the indispensable role that they play in assisting the DEL in conducting these inspections. I must say, the value add has been quite apparent and it does not go unnoticed.

It is our single mandate to ensure that the vulnerable are protected. We have an obligation to deal decisively with recalcitrant and unscrupulous employers who continue to undermine the laws of the country in general. And Employment Laws in particular. 

Program Director, it is our mandate to ensure a fair labour practice in line with s23 of the Constitution; a right to equality in line with s9 of the Constitution, which includes a right to substantive equality that can only be achieved through legal instrument in the form of the Employment Equity Act. It is our duty to further ensure the right to a safe working environment in line with s24 of the Constitution and the right to social security in line with s27 Constitution. We have promulgated legislation in response to the codification of all these provisions. 

Our policy framework is guided by sacred outcomes that we want to achieve which include the protection of vulnerable workers; the strengthening of occupational safety protection and the promotion of equity in the workplace. These are outcomes that would contribute to the harmonisation of relations in the workplace and assist in improving productivity which is an ultimate goal of every employer. Our laws are unbiased in terms of potential benefits. Both employers and employees are set to benefit from an environment that is pro compliance. No employer establishes a business without thinking of the bottom-line. A peaceful and fulfilling working environment bodes well for profit. Such an environment is likely to impact positively on the clientele. Through a happy and loyal employee, the employer is well represented and so is their product. It can be argued that improved compliance and productivity are like two sides of the same coin, they feed off each other. 

Program Director, one of our aspirations as the DEL is to have an increase in workplaces that self-regulate. Resources are never in abundance and we would therefore never have enough. A self-regulatory outlook will go a long way in helping us to get a firm hold on the issue of scarcity of resources.  I urge all of us to have a honey comb mentality, the same way it oozes with honey, can we just ooze compliance. We may have different dreams, but we only have one South Africa, we have a joint responsibility to make it work. We have to be patriotic to our country. “Love your neighbour as you love yourself – Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you”

In testing compliance with various pieces of legislation, the DEL works with relevant Departments and Entities. The DEL often leads joint Blitz Inspections to determine compliance with employment law whilst our sister departments, like the Department of Home Affairs, determine compliance with the immigration legislation. The Mega Blitz Inspections conducted this week originated from this idea, inter alia. It is however taken to a higher level where it is led by either the Minister, Deputy Minister, Director General or Inspector General. This is done in a quest to test the levels of compliance alongside the top Management of the Department so as to strengthen policy interventions.

There is generally very low compliance with the Employment Services Act and the Immigration Act. It is dumbfounding that some employers would be hell-bent on employing undocumented foreign nationals. Often exposing them to exploitative occupational environments. Our policies do not reject the employment of foreign nationals. Such should however, be done in areas where there are no skilled South Africans in those areas and in accordance with the applicable procedures. 

There should be no foreign national employed in the country without the applicable valid work visa. It therefore offends common sense that employers should contravene these laws in favour of employing undocumented labour migrants in the midst of such high unemployment levels in the country. There is no reasonable explanation or justification for these type of practises. Undocumented foreign nationals are often underpaid, this, in direct contravention of the National Minimum Wage Act. Sometimes these foreign nationals are deprived of their rights of access to basic Social Security in the form of UIF and COID. This shall not be tolerated by the state.  A protection of vulnerable workers translates into protection all workers within the borders of South Africa. 

In this week’s Mega Blitz, which took place in Gauteng from Monday to Tuesday, 20 undocumented labour migrants were detained. In addition, 3 employers were also arrested for contravening the Immigration Laws. It is important to state that it is actually vital to prosecute the employers in this regard because they are the ones responsible for these contraventions.  We have seen policy gaps in this space and we are working hard to close these in the shortest time possible. We will leave no stone unturned to deal with such employers that continue to contravene the Employment Services Act. It is against this background that we are finalizing the Labour National Migration Policy whereby we would have quotas of foreign nationals to be employed in certain sectors of the economy. The Skills Transfer Plan should also be applicable.  This is the direction that has been taken by many countries of the world, including SADC countries, Botswana being the most recent.

Ladies and gentlemen, this seminar, inter alia, is meant to brief you on some of our programmes and the policy direction that we are taking. We appeal for your co-operation in this regard. 

Some employers argue that it is expensive to comply, I put it to you that noncompliance is costlier. In the space of Occupational Health and Safety, we have come across worrisome trends of low compliance levels. These atrocities undermine the well-being of workers, in particular, as they are on the receiving end of all sorts of health and safety hazards. When employers take care of their employees, they are most likely to have the same reciprocated. 

On a lighter note ladies and gentlemen, it is said that “debate is masculine, conversation is feminine” I stole the quote from Bronson Alcott.

I thank you.

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