Keep Brics billions from bureaucrats State needs to cut its public sector wage bill, not increase it, says Business Unity SA CEO Cas Coovadia 18 April 2021 - 00:08 By CHRIS BARRON
Cas Coovadia, the CEO of Business Unity SA (Busa), has appealed to the government not to use the $1bn (R14.5bn) it has borrowed from the New Development Bank to create more public sector jobs.
Announcing the emergency loan last week, the Brics bank said it would be used to create and support about 700,000 jobs in the public sector as part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus.
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Busa sceptical of new Employment Equity Bill, saying business will suffer To accept the current bill as it stands will have unintended consequences on businesses and their ability to grow and to sustain or create employment, argues Busa Busa has expressed scepticism at the possible amendment of the Employment Equity Bill. Stock photo Image: rawpixel/123rf.com
Business Unity SA (Busa) has said that the pace of transformation in the workplace has been slow, but expressed scepticism at the possible amendment of the Employment Equity Bill, which seeks to change this.
The bill, if amended, is set to shake up the country s employment equity laws and give the minister of employment and labour powers to fast-track transformation in different sectors. It will also allow the minister to determine sectoral numerical targets for employers.
State tries to curb its spiralling R650-billion wage bi dailymaverick.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymaverick.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Parliament may need to reconsider how it selects committee meetings to be live-streamed during the Covid-19 State of Disaster because the prevailing system is leaving a lot of South Africans in the dark.
Most days when meetings are in progress, the proceedings of only a handful are accessible on Parliament’s YouTube channel. By way of example, of the 11 scheduled to begin on 9 March 2021 at 09:00, only six were live an hour later. And that was a good day. Before Covid-19, anyone with a valid ID could attend any committee meeting in Parliament open to the public which most were.
The week before, two meetings were held by the National Assembly
But what B4SA can do is back these negotiations with the necessary technical, medico-legal and contractual support.
“And where we can apply pressure and leverage in accessing or securing access to vaccines, we will do that. But the negotiations must be led by government. When there is a surfeit of vaccines it will be different.”
As recently as November the members of B4SA were winding down their operations, with the different workstreams transferred to their permanent homes. For instance, the economics hub, which pulled in dozens of experts to chart an economic recovery plan is now under the wing of Business Unity SA and the personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement hub has been absorbed by the Department of Health. The legal entity and management structure was hibernated, waiting to spring into action when required.