Leadership must account to Parliament on Nedlac

This year's National Economic Development and Labour Council's (Nedlac) annual report shows that it has failed to accomplish 63% of its objectives for the year. Most notably, the Youth Wage Subsidy proposal continues to languish without progress. It is clear to us that Nedlac has become a place where policy goes to die.

Accordingly, the DA will be writing to Finance Committee Chairperson, Thaba Mufamadi to request that Nedlac Executive Director Alistair Smith and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan appear before the committee to explain the organisation's performance in general and the lack of progress on the Youth Wage Subsidy in particular.

Nedlac is meant to serve as a consultative forum where business, labour, government and civil society come together to co-ordinate policy on social and economic matters. But the 2011/12 Nedlac annual report shows that it has achieved only 35 of its 95 planned targets over the last year.

To make matters worse, an assessment of the report by an independent auditor found that a total of 73% of the measures that allow the Council to monitor its performance did not exist. This means that the Council does not have an accurate view of what is being achieved.

Some of the Council's objectives that they failed to achieve include:

To develop interventions and strategies to curb xenophobic incidents

To develop a sustainable human settlements plan for South Africa

To draft a Youth Development Programme outlining interventions aimed at addressing challenges facing the youth

But their key failure is their inability to make progress on National Treasury's Youth Wage Subsidy proposal that they have now been sitting on for over 19 months, effectively blocking its implementation.

As the key government delegate on the Youth Wage Subsidy at Nedlac, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan must join the Executive Director in accounting to Parliament on the lack of progress on the Youth Wage Subsidy.

Statement issued by Tim Harris MP, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, September 27 2012

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