National Minimum Wage: DA urges Treasury to clarify contradicting job loss statements

24 November 2016

The DA will be writing to the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, urging him to clarify why National Treasury, in less than a week, has done an about-turn on its initial stance that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will be detrimental for jobs.

In a report submitted to Nedlac by National Treasury and quoted in the Nedlac NMW report released on 13 November, National Treasury noted that a minimum wage of R3,189 in 2014 numbers would result in the loss of approximately 715,000 jobs. In direct contrast to this, National Treasury released a statement yesterday supporting the NMW where Minister Gordhan called upon society to support the NMW as it is a “thoughtful and constructive approach to addressing the challenge of inequality and unemployment.”

We require a clear explanation by National Treasury on whether there are new conditions that need to considered in the NMW framework. As it stands National Treasury’s contradicting statements add to the latent anxiety that implementing a NMW could be the final move in sinking our already ailing economy.

Minister Gordhan must put the conafusion to bed by publicly announcing their position on the NMW, South Africans need to know where National Treasury stands as the incumbent authority in managing the country's finances and our economic future.

One more job lost is too much, we have surpassed the 9 million mark in terms of the number of jobless people in our country. We will fight to ensure that the job crisis stops now, the first step is getting a clear stance from National Treasury on the NMW.

Issued by Ian Ollis, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, 24 November 2016