Ministers and Deputy Ministers
NEDLAC Acting Executive Director, Mr Mahandra Naidoo
Representatives of labour, community, business and government
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to address this National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) Annual Summit. These summits are an important opportunity for leaders from all sectors of society to reflect on the challenges of the present and reaffirm our determination to find solutions for the future.
Nedlac remains a unique developmental partnership between the state, business, labour and community to achieve shared prosperity. The social partners here are committed to, and driven by, the idea that one cannot solve our country's challenges without the other.
As South Africans, our aspirations are intertwined and inseparable.
We were privileged yesterday to be present at the Cradle of Humankind for the announcement of the discovery of a new early human relative, Homo naledi.
This remarkable discovery gives us a glimpse into our past.
It underlines our common humanity.
Most importantly, it reminds us of the ability of our earliest ancestors to adapt, to innovate and to evolve.
Like those of our genus who walked the earth before us, we humans have the ability to change and to progress and to overcome even the most inhospitable of environments.
We have the ability to work together, to pool resources and to strive to achieve the greater good.
As he addressed the nation on the day of his inauguration, President Nelson Mandela said: "Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.”
This simple statement captures the essence of our national developmental agenda - the achievement of a better life for all our people.
This is why we are here today.
This is why Nedlac was formed.
And it is why we must value and nurture and champion it.
Colleagues, comrades and friends,
We find ourselves, as a country, in an inhospitable environment.
Like many of our peers, our economy is facing strong headwinds.
We are constrained by the legacy of our past.
Many of our people don't have the skills they need. Many don't have basic assets.
Decades of under-investment has left a significant gap in economic and social infrastructure.
Our progress in addressing these constraints has been impressive.
But this progress is being hampered by a global economic environment that exposes our weaknesses - including an over-reliance on commodity exports, a shallow skills base, and low domestic savings and investment.
The pressure is being felt by all Nedlac constituencies.
We feel it in government, as we seek to meet our significant developmental obligations in the context of declining revenue to the fiscus.
We feel it in business, where demand is weak, costs are rising, profitability is down and confidence is low.
We feel it in labour, where workers fear for their jobs and where jobs are being lost on a daily basis.
And we feel it in communities, where persistent poverty, unemployment and inequality shape the contours of daily life.
Yet, though we may face headwinds, we are not idle before their icy blast.
We are not helpless. We cannot be passive.
We are acting - and acting together - to stabilise our economy, sustain investment, save jobs, promote growth and create better livelihoods.
In 2008, we came together as social partners to find ways to mitigate the worst effects of the global financial crisis.
Now we are coming together to address the challenges facing key sectors of our economy.
We welcome, for instance, the commitment of our social partners in the mining industry to protect jobs and sustain production.
The Leaders' Declaration adopted on 31 August 2015 underscores the critical importance of dialogue and cooperation.
It translates a certain commitment into deliberate practical interventions that will make a real impact on the lives of workers in that industry.
It places the responsibility for sustaining the industry on all stakeholders, who individually and collectively must work to advance the interests of all.
We welcome also the interventions in the steel industry, where stakeholders have come together to mitigate job losses and strengthen the position of the local steel industry.
We should not wait until industries are threatened before we act.
We should not wait for a crisis.
In Nedlac, we have a platform for engagement between social partners across the economy.
We have a platform for deliberation, dialogue, negotiation and action.
Let us use this platform to address the challenges our economy faces.
Let us use this platform to involve all social partners in the nine-point plan that President Jacob Zuma announced in the State of the Nation Address.
This plan aims to build a competitive and socially equitable industrial economy that will absorb the masses of our people who are without work.
After this summit, we should perhaps convene another meeting to dissect the nine-point plan, where each of the social partners can share their views and where we can discuss new and innovative solutions to our challenges.
Through this plan we will be able derive greater value from our natural resources - through the beneficiation of our mineral wealth and the growth of our ocean economy.
We are improving our productive capacity through the implementation of our industrial policy and measures to increase private sector investment.
We are broadening the base of our economy by unlocking the potential of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), cooperatives, and township and rural enterprises.
Importantly, we are making measurable progress in stabilising our electricity grid and expanding and diversifying our energy supply.
Colleagues, comrades and friends,
This Nedlac Summit must deliver hope.
It must deliver proposals on practical things we can do when we leave here today to improve conditions in our economy.
It must say to our respective constituencies that we need to do extraordinary things in times of extraordinary challenges to seize extraordinary opportunities.
It must make a difference in our country.
It must make a difference in the lives of our people.
It must take us closer to our shared objective of ensuring that there is work, bread, water and salt for all.
I thank you.
