Public Entities key to economic development and job creation – Employment and Labour DG, Lamati
The public entities associated with the Department of Employment and Labour will play a central role in South Africa’s economic development and job creation, said the Department’s Director-General, Thobile Lamati. The Director-General said one of the key institutions in advancing the economic development and job creation was Productivity SA given its legislative mandate to promote employment growth, productivity, thereby contributing to South Africa’s economic development and competiveness.
Lamati was speaking at Emperors Palace in Ekurhuleni last night during the prestigious Productivity SA national productivity awards. October month has been declared Productivity Month and throughout the month Productivity SA has been involved in an awareness campaign that includes the marketing and promotion of productivity across the country.
Some of the public entities associated with the Department of Employment and Labour include: the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), the Cmpensation Fund (CF), the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), National Economic Development and Labur Council (Nedlac) and Supported Employment Enterprises (SEE). Outlining what he termed the “flavour of the direction we are moving towards”, he said the reconfiguration of Government departments was not an event, but a process. Lamati said the Department will need to work diligently to help Productivity SA’s on its potential to deliver jobs and productivity. Lamati said delivering on the new mandate that of employment for the Department was work in progress.
He said productivity month “provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the importance of competitiveness and increasing productivity”. He cautioned that increased investment on its own would not grow the economy. Chairman of Productivity SA, Professor Mthunzi Mdwaba speaking on the awards said these were intended to recognise best performance. Mdwaba said Productivity SA sought to galvanise South African companies to be competitive at global stage. He said the promotion of small business was critical to the economy as they form the back bone of enterprise development.
He said it was crucial to acknowledge companies contributing and working hard towards growth and economic development “in these trying times”.
“We continue to do wrong things, uninspired things and have ignored productivity. We must turn the tide - and we can. But we must change our bad habits, we must change our attitudes, we must be prepared to acquire the skills of our unlearning everything that we have learnt because this is a problem. As we move into the future we must begin to learning to learn.
“When we adopted the declaration at the International Labour Organization (ILO) Centenary, as employers we said while the ILO has done good work in 100 years, it needed to prioritise skills development and productivity,” he said “we should not be fooled by labels of revolutions. What we need is skilling and reskilling and upskilling to manage transition and to have a just transition and productivity will take us into a different trajectory”.
Mdwaba said South Africa was in need of productivity ambassadors, who will lead from the front. He also reiterated the need to be consistently cognisant of human-centred outcomes of what we do as we continue to embrace technology revolution and evolution. Meanwhile, Productivity Month is a yearly campaign and its objective is to promote the importance of productivity and inculcate a sense of competitiveness in every South African. Throughout Productivity Month a series of workshops, seminars and road shows have taken place to urge South Africans to embrace the concept of productivity. Productivity Month culminates in the National Productivity Awards.
The winners in 2019 National Productivity Awards as per the categories are:
- Emerging sector – Wagner Systems (PTY) Ltd, an ISO 9001:2015 certified contract manufacturer specialising in the production of fine mechanics components and assemblies. The company is located in Diep Rivier, Western Cape.
- Co-Operative sector – Segometsi Bagoshi Agricultural Co-Operative established in 2009 and is situated in Winterveldt, northwest of Pretoria in Gauteng. The Co-operative is made up of 5 members and runs various agricultural projects like livestock, crops and egg production on their 30 hectors of land. Their main clients are wholesalers like SH Supermarket and Enviroswitch.
- Public Sector – Limpopo Provincial Treasury whose overall purpose and goal is "To ensure sound public resource Management of provincial and local government for socio-economic development”. Their vision is excellence in public resource management for socio-economic development and their mission is to empower provincial and local government for sustainable service delivery through good governance and sound public resource management with integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness and professionalism.
- Corporate sector – The Blinds Syndicate close corporation was established in 1996 and is situated North of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Since their beginning over 23 years ago, they have become South Africa’s leading supplier of custom shutters, blinds and allied products and always been committed to excellence.
Enquiries:
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