From the National African Chamber of Commerce and Industry:
Nafcoc welcomes the announcement of an expert panel on the national minimum wage appointed by the Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and sees it as a step forward but with a significant reservation.
Nafcoc President Lawrence Mavundla said, “The credibility of the panel would have been greatly enhanced if the interests of small business, in particular black business, were directly represented on the panel. This is a critical omission.
“Our stance is ‘do nothing without us’: include small black business in all policy formulation and implementation. The SME sector is the engine of the economy and a minimum wage must not act as a break on expansion and job creation.”
The small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, from which Nafcoc draws its members, is under threat. In particular, the SME sector needs to be recognised for its critical role and supported by government policies.
This sector is estimated to account for 90% of all formal business, provide employment for approximately 60% of the labour force and contributes close to 34% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Time for radical TRANSFORMATION: Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, bin the idea of a national minimum wage, it will produce a disaster – job losses!!!!!
— Phumlani M. Majozi (@PhumlaniMMajozi) May 22, 2016
The National Development Plan (NDP) states that 90% of all new jobs will come from the SME businesses.
Nafcoc’s position is that a multi minimal wage regime is appropriate for South Africa, which should be carefully designed so that it does not undermine other important transformative economic initiatives.
Currently varying minimum wages already exist from various bargaining council wage determinations therefore we believe our proposal will fit well and improve the current situation.
Unfortunately for the nearly 9 million South Africans who are out of work this debate is meaningless and academic. Policies designed to support and assist the SME sector and remove the burdens of over regulation would do much to help South Africa’s catastrophic unemployment.
