Business and labour appear not to be playing ball in the implementation of the country’s crucial economic reconstruction and recovery plan (ERRP).
A report on the ERRP shows that not all social partners are pulling in the same direction in the rollout of the ERRP. So fraught are the relations that government released a report on Thursday that only focuses on interventions by the state in the implementation of ERRP.
According to the ERRP report, which is an account of a period between November 2020 and June 2022, the government made good progress in delivering its side of the bargain.
However, the report notes, the full impact of the implementation can only materialise if all the social partners play their role.
“The ERRP is a collaborative initiative from the government and social partners, but this report does not include social partner’s inputs. Social partners need to strengthen their partnership and coordinate their efforts so that the implementation of the recovery can have the desired impact,” says the report.
Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who leads the cabinet cluster, noted that social compacting between government and social partners is needed to realise higher economic growth.
“We play our part in creating an enabling environment. We need business to invest in the economy to create jobs,” said Kubayi.
Last week, it became apparent at the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) annual summit that the government is still battling to engineer a social compact with business and labour.
Nedlac director Lisa Seftel said in her report that “there is not a common understanding and appreciation of what social compacting can achieve”.
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