Address delivered by the President of the Republic, His Excellency Jacob Zuma, at the report back meeting with black business and black professionals, Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg, July 23 2009

Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Leadership of organizations representing black professionals and business,
Businesspersons and professionals,
Ladies and gentleman,

Good evening to you all.

We meet almost three months after the establishment of a new government following the highly successful and robust elections of April 2009. The transition occurred smoothly and professionally. We have redesigned government in order to improve the capacity to deliver services. We have a number of new Ministries, and have also redefined the mandate of others to ensure clarity and focus.

The first few months have been about effecting those changes. It is now all systems go as Ministers are settling in well in their new portfolios.

We had to hit the ground running because we have to meet the needs of our people especially the poorest of the poor. And we have not been deterred by the negative global economic climate. Many of our people have lived their entire lives in a "recession". They are yet to experience the benefits of economic growth and for their sake, we have to soldier on and do what needs to be done, with the available resources.

International partnerships are important to enhance the achievement of our national goals.

I have recently returned from two critical international relations engagements - the G8 and the G5 Summits held in Italy, the Non Aligned Movement Summit in Egypt and the African Union Summit in Libya.

I was struck and humbled by how South Africa is received in international forums. The respect and confidence that countries of the world bestow on our country is overwhelming.

I came back confident that the leaders of the most powerful economies in the world have applied themselves towards responding to the global economic crisis.

At the G8 and G5 meeting, I was reassured that the world is working together to address this economic crisis.

I hope this marks a new era of international cooperation that will also lead to a significant positive outcome to the talks on a common effort to slow down climate change and its deal with its impact. The climate change talks will take place in Copenhagen later this year.

Ladies and gentlemen, although we have fared better than most countries, we are going through the most difficult economic period in recent times.

The last time that the economy shrunk as it is now, was in the early 1990s, before the transition to democracy.

It is not likely that the current reversal will last as long as the recession in the early 1990s -but our recovery might not be as strong as we would hope.

Even if the economy begins to grow again next year, we will have to wait a little longer for a significant increase in new job creation. It always takes some time, even years, after growth starts, for jobs to be created in significant numbers.

That is why the agreement between government, labour, business and the community sector reached in February this year to respond jointly to the crisis remains so important.

I will be meeting with the leaders of the teams developing and implementing the crisis response programmes early next month. That will be the time to assess our progress and consider the way forward.

While we still need to do more to address the impact of the crisis on the poor and low paid workers, I am confident that some of the measures already introduced and others in the pipeline will help to cushion the impact of the crisis for the most vulnerable.

We need to unite and work together to meet the challenges of the economic crisis. Our mission is to make all our people to feel that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and White, and work together to make our country a success.

We will need that unity as we work together to meet our central objective, to provide leadership when it comes to dealing with issues of job creation, eradicating unemployment, ensuring that our people enjoy safety and security as well as accelerating the pace of service delivery.

As indicated in the State of the Nation address, government will be guided by the 10 priorities that we have identified. These are derived from the five ANC priorities of education, health, rural development, land and agrarian reform, the fight against crime and creating decent jobs.

The issues raised during our last sessions touch on these priorities.

We share the concern of black business and black professionals about the need to create an inclusive and transformed economy, and our Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) is one of the key tools of addressing this.

Our view is that we have a good BBBEE policy. The current BBBEE framework is adequate. It is inclusive and balanced. We may just need to sharpen implementation and communication. The Department of Trade and Industry is attending to this aspect.

The seven elements of the BBBEE scorecard are a response to the initial narrow BEE, which focused only on ownership and management control in enterprises.

In addition, very few people realise that the current BBBEE framework provides for co-operatives.

In our view, BBBEE must reinforce:

• Skills and rural development.
• Enterprise and socio-economic development.
• Job creation through procurement and entrepreneurship.

Access to government procurement opportunities by black firms has been raised as a serious challenge.

Government is working hard to ensure that this is being addressed adequately. Already, the key objectives of the Preferential Procurement Element of the Codes of Good Practice promote the use of black owned professional service providers and entrepreneurs.

In this regard, black owned professional service providers are recognized as value adding enterprises for purposes of the BBBEE scorecard.

We need to ensure that State-Owned enterprises give effect to this in a meaningful way. This includes ensuring that government departments allocate and implement the targeted procurement services for black professionals.

We are planning to hold a National Summit on BBBEE on May 2010. This summit will be able to give government a sense of progress on the implementation of BBBEE.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are meeting with you this evening because you have a role to play in the implementation of the country's programme of action.

We need to work together to improve government's service delivery mechanisms. We appreciate the fact that you constantly inform us of areas where government needs to increase the pace, or improve the quality of service. Remember that this is your government. Working together we can do more to effect the desired improvements!

We noted your concern raised at the last meeting about the unacceptable delays by government departments in paying black businesses and SMMEs for services rendered.

Treasury Regulations state that all payments must be settled within 30 days from the receipt of an invoice or, in the case of civil claims, from the date of settlement or court judgment.

The exception is only in cases where parties have agreed to an alternative arrangement. In addition, the BBBEE Codes of Good Practice have made provision for shorter payment periods in order to assist to alleviate cash flow burdens faced by SMMEs.

The Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency has written to all national and provincial departments and municipalities, and urged Ministers, Premiers, MECs and mayors via Premiers, to ensure that heads of departments comply with the regulations.

The Departments and municipalities are expected to provide feedback to the Minister at the end of July.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are also working hard to promote gender equity in the economic sphere.

We want to emphasise greater focus on entrepreneurship development for women, especially in the male-dominated construction and property industries amongst others.

However, we must add that while the 50% gender representation policy of the ANC and government are commendable, there needs to be a way to encourage the private sector to do likewise.

Better enforcement of the provisions of the Employment Equity Act could go a very long way towards achieving this objective.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am also aware that the issue of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Act is of genuine concern to you.

We have worked hard to ensure that legislation such as the CIDB Act supports rather than hinders black-owned businesses.

It is not acceptable for small and emerging contractors to find it cumbersome to register on the CIDB Register of Contractors or for established contractors to move to higher grading levels.

Part of the challenge stems from the inability of lower level contractors to provide audited statements which forms part of the CIDB grading assessment.

However, I agree with the suggestion of the Black Business Caucus in the Built Environment that the CIDB has to offer the requisite support to emerging contractors through, for example, training and mentorship programmes.

I am satisfied that there are open channels of communication between the parties, and the fact that CIDB has undertaken to attend to the concerns that have been raised. Task teams have been established to deal with each of the issues raised.

I have also been advised that there would be follow up meetings that would be held in the near future for the task teams to give report backs on their findings.

I believe that this is the correct approach of reaching common ground, and would await developments and reports from this front.

Compatriots, during the elections we pledged that the ANC Government would have, as one of its key priorities, the fight against crime and corruption in order to ensure safer and more secure communities.

To this end, we have begun working to overhaul the Criminal Justice System and work towards reducing crime levels.

In the next three years the number of police personnel will be significantly increased from 183 180 to 204 860 with more focus being given to increased visibility and enhancing crime detection.

Over the next year, the number of detectives will increase by 19%, and a programme is already underway to train 12 928 detectives.

But the most effective response should come from ordinary South Africans, who should cooperate with the police in the fight against crime. Working together we will do more to fight crime decisively.

Ladies and gentlemen, every life is valuable. We are saddened by the death of nine miners who were killed by a fall of ground at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg operations on Monday.

We extend our condolences to the families of all those killed in this disaster.

Around 200 miners die each year in South Africa and this is alarming and unacceptable.

Government will work more intensively with mining groups and labour to address this issue without delay.

On the labour front, it is still bargaining season. Wage negotiations in a number of sectors, including in the public service, have not yet been resolved. Strikes have occurred and more are threatened.

Wage negotiations around this time are not an unusual occurrence, nor is the resorting to strike action when agreement is not achieved. This happens every year.

Due to the current economic conditions, these negotiations may be more difficult this year. Employers and workers must negotiate in good faith and should be prepared to understand each other's positions.

We wish all parties that are still negotiating a speedy resolution, so that life can normalise for employers and workers alike.

We have also noted with great concern, the protests that have erupted in several parts of the country. This government will listen to people's concerns, and will work with them to address them. We will always do that, we will govern with our people.

We acknowledge that there are service delivery problems in some areas, and that is why we have reconfigured government departments and have instituted some changes that should improve the way government functions.

We are putting systems in place to create a more responsive and more effective government.

Our Constitution allows our people the right of freedom of assembly and expression, and to protest where they feel they need to, but this must be done within the ambit of the law.

There can be no justification for violence, looting and destruction of property or attacks on foreign nationals residing in our country.

The law enforcement agencies will continue to act swiftly and to take action against all who break the law. They have our full support as they carry out their mandate to maintain law and order in our communities.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you of what I said the last time we met. We need your talent and expertise in the public service.

You will be moved by how people's lives will be changed for the better, by the work you perform. Most importantly, you will have the power to implement all the suggestions you are making, once you join the public service!

Compatriots, we appreciate the fact that we were able to meet again.

Let me thank you for placing your confidence in the ANC government. We will from our side work to formalize the interaction so that our discussions can impact on our policy and implementation processes.

Teams from the Presidency and the organizations represented here will take the matters forward.

I thank you.

Issued by The Presidency

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