The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Governor of the reserve bank, Gill Marcus, have urged the government to relax labour law to allow for new job creation and economic growth. The IMF report says that more jobs would be created if economic growth were stronger and the labour market “more flexible“. Nedbank also released a monthly report last week which flagged labour issues as a constraint on South Africa’s investment, production and export capacity.
The Free Market Foundation (FMF) announced today that it is proceeding with an application for a court date to have its constitutional challenge to S32 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) heard in the Pretoria High Court. Over the six months since launching the challenge, the FMF granted generous extensions requested by Respondents and COSATU beyond the original deadline of 31 July 2013.
The final deadline expired on 30 September 2013. Mabasha, chairman of the FMF said “I have said many times that this is not the road we would have chosen. We did not seek this legal confrontation. But I do not want to look back one day and say I saw what was happening and did nothing. We must give a voice to those who do not have one: the 7 million unemployed South Africans who languish on our streets and in our townships, especially the millions of young people whose youth, energy, human spirit and potential is being squandered by our labour laws. Winning this case will not end the crisis, but it will remove a key obstacle which prevents many small and medium businesses from hiring people, especially unskilled youth who need that first critical foot on the employment ladder“.
