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LABOUR MINISTRY
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
ADDRESS BY
THE HON. MINISTER OF LABOUR:
MS MILDRED N OLIPHANT, MP
AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE CCMA VAAL OFFICE
14 MARCH 2014
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Programme director
CCMA director Nerine Kahn and your team
Acting DG of Labour and your team
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
We meet today to celebrate another milestone in the quest of improving the lives of
all citizens.
There is, without a doubt, few that would question the role that the
Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration has played in the lives of
South Africans.
Few would proclaim for all to hear that in all the years that the CCMA has
been around, there have not been real changes that it has brought to the lives of
South Africans.
Few would, with conviction, truly demonstrate that the CCMA has been a
debit rather than a credit to the lives of all workers in our country.
But then again, there are a few people who would want to sail against the tide
and still proclaim that the CCMA has not played a great role or changed the lives of
our people. Just this past weekend, we had an executive of employers’ body
question not only the role rate of CCMA but went so far as to castigate the
organisation.
This is a sad day indeed when an executive members attack institutions of
state, designed to bring about social justice right in the middle of an effort to resolve
the crisis that has cost the country dearly.
It seems programme director that when people have failed to achieve that
which they have set out to do, they turn their attention to organs of state. Lately, the
object of derision has been National Economic Development and Labour Council
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(Nedlac). There is no need to remind anyone that this body is the main institution for
social dialogue in this country. In fact, the said executive also took a swipe at the
Nedlac saying though in the same breath they accepted this is an important social
dialogue institution.
With the elections looming, another institution of state that is under attack is
the Independent Electoral Commission. Again, it is clear that those who have taken
to attacking these institutions have not really achieved what they had hoped to.
Instead of working hard to ensure that their parties get the vote they need, they
attack the messenger instead.
Though the IEC is not the subject of my discussion today, this is just to
illustrate the point where institutions of state are being attacked without substance.
This is a worrying trend indeed because this goes to the heart of the questioning the
good story that we have been weaving since 1994. It sounds very short-sighted to
cut a nose to spite your face. The short term gains from attacking these institutions
would surely be cancelled by the long-term effects which would be almost impossible
to reverse.
The CCMA is tasked with delivering the social justice mandate through:

Ensuring accessibility to the law; treating all CCMA users with respect and
dignity; empowering vulnerable sectors and communities.

Contributing to the streamlining of CCMA dispute resolution processes and
reducing unnecessary referrals: promotion of compliance with and appropriate
usage of CCMA dispute resolution processes; conducting of trends analyses
and trouble shooting with CCMA users.

Contributing to the transformation of workplace relations: Building Workplace
Relations, Managing Conflict in the Workplace and Dealing with Workplace
Discipline projects.

Promoting and facilitating social dialogue: facilitation of social partner events
on topical labour market and legal issues through summits, user forum
meetings and seminars.
But what is social justice and why is it important in our country?
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We have a painful history in our country. We have a history whereby a large
number of citizens were treated as if they did not exist. Their rights were trampled
upon. They were used as fodder to feed the apartheid economic machinery. They
were not accorded the rights as set out in international bodies like the United Nations
and other related bodies like the International Labour Organisation.
The dawn of the new era meant that we needed to ensure that we do what we
could to push back the frontiers of slavery that our people had been reduced to. We
decided that never again will this country be a place where rights were accorded
according to colour. Our Constitution was inclusive and extolled the virtues of the
dignity all human beings.
Our leaders had earlier gathered in Kliptown in 1955 and set out a blueprint of
what the new state would be like and again, we took sustenance from their work and
included most of their exhortations in the new system – the Constitution primarily and
then all the laws to achieve this noble goal.
Social just is defined as: The fair and proper administration of laws
conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin,
gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without
prejudice.
Let me repeat:
Social just is defined as: The fair and proper administration of laws
conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin,
gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without
prejudice.
In other works, this term is used to refer to “a set of institutions which enables
people to lead a fulfilling life and be active contributors to their community.”
Further, they describe it as the same as human development, and the
relevant institutions are usually taken to include education, health care, social
security, labour rights, as well as a broader system of public services, progressive
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taxation and regulation of markets, to ensure fair distribution of wealth, equality of
opportunity, and no gross inequality of outcome.
The esteemed scholar, John Rawls developed a conception of justice from
the perspective of persons that are free and equal. He spoke of two moral powers –
a capacity for a sense of justice and a conception of the good.
A sense of justice is the capacity to understand to apply and to act from the
public conception of justice which characterises the fair terms of cooperation.
A conception of good includes the conception of what is valuable in human
life.
From these concepts flow the political conceptions of justice worked out for
political, social and economic institutions. This is expressed as “certain fundamental
ideas seen as implicit in the public political culture of a democratic society”.
In short, ladies and gentlemen, society forms a compact that determines how
it is going to run itself, what values are important and the context thereof.
We decided at the time that the dignity of human life was paramount.
Everything that we have done in the past 20 years has been in furtherance of this
goal. Institutions like CCMA and others have been tools in driving the agenda for
social change that is part of our good story.
The launch of this office is part of this good story. It is part of this agenda for
good, for social justice, for human dignity.
Whatever detractors say, they cannot hide the truth. It is stark. It is there for
all to see. We continue weaving the good story through listening and reacting to the
requests and demands that citizens make. We will continue to heal this country and
the CCMA is one of the tools to achieve this healing.
The Portfolio committee on labour listened and I am glad today to say that as
a result of their good work and all other stakeholders, this office now has taken on
the status of being a permanent office under direction of Johannesburg.
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Programme director
We dare not falter. We dare not leave the people who depend on us in the lurch. We
dare not stop moving South Africa forward. This administration has laid a solid
foundation for further improvement. The thread dates back to 1994 and will continue
for as long as we have been given the mandate to move this country forward.
The story of our country continues to be written in positive terms and we will
continue to do so. Where we make mistakes, we will correct those. But we shall
never allow those who are enemies of progress to detract us.
I contend that it is immaterial that the executive who attacked the CCMA was
doing so in off-the-record briefing as we have been told. What is scary is that she
holds those views in the first place. This is height of insensitivity to all those who
have suffered at the hands of the unfair economic system. It is above all, insensitivity
to those who sacrificed their lives for a better country that we now have.
I thank you
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