SA must stand firm against IMF dictates

Policies they impose leave poor countries in a mess

- Mthunzi Mdwaba

For years, I have warned against South Africa's policy implementation failures. We are having to grapple with all the consequences of this failure on so many levels.

The World Bank has recently proclaimed itself as a BEE (black economic empowerment) expert and then lumps BEE together with what it refers to as “onerous labour laws”, urging South Africa to adjust its regulations to market realities.

Let me start with our labour laws. There is nothing onerous with them - what is problematic is the government's failure to monitor, police and implement what we say on a policy level.

Our productivity and competitiveness are admittedly adversely and grossly compromised by the failures to attend to the above, and by the failure to have an employment policy and an industrial policy.

If our policies were as rigid as some political parties claim, why then is it that in terms of s189 it is so easy for companies to give notice to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to retrench workers and generally to have unfair dismissals that take forever to be dealt with and resolved?

More often than not, retrenchment of workers happens without testing by Productivity SA on whether it is justified or if it is simply operational inefficiencies by the C-level of the company.