The government is seeking to engage the SA Human Rights Commission after the Chapter Nine body reportedly found that the country’s affirmative action and employment equity policies were unconstitutional.

In her opening address at the 23rd annual summit of Nedlac in Pretoria Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said she had been “ advised” that an SAHRC investigation into the constitutionality of affirmative action and employment equity policies had concluded that both the policy and the Employment Equity Act “were unconstitutional, and not in sync with international conventions.”

She told Nedlac - the consensus-seeking body comprising government, business, labour and civil society, that the report made various recommendations on what needed to be done, including amending the act. It also gave government six months to report back on steps taken in response to the recommendations.

Oliphant said Nedlac partners needed to study the report and respond to the SAHRC’s recommendations. “It might even be useful to seek an audience with the commission to understand the basis for its report, its findings and the recommendations.

“This is important, given that all our labour laws have to pass constitutional scrutiny before they can be signed into law. These conclusions by the commission demand special attention from all of us in general and the Nedlac social partners in particular.”

Lagging economy

On the sidelines of the summit, two major trade union federations called government’s stance regarding the state of the economy as a form of “denial”.

Bheki Ntshalintshali, Cosatu’s general secretary, and Dennis George, general secretary of the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), both said government was in denial regarding the economic crisis in which the country found itself.

Addressing delegates at the summit, held in Pretoria on Friday, Deputy President David Mabuza said the country was not in a crisis, but was going through challenges that included sluggish economic growth.

“I want to call these challenges, not a crisis, because we have been confronted with these challenges before and we overcame,” Mabuza said in his keynote address.

Ntshalintshali responded, telling City Press: “I think the deputy president is trying to encourage us, but I do not accept what he says when 9 million people are unemployed, most of them youths with no prospects of getting jobs.

“Crime statistics are high, many of the government buildings are unsafe and 17 million people receive social grants. If you can’t quantify that as a crisis, then you don’t know what a crisis is,” Ntshalintshali said.

George said Mabuza was in denial and warned that if the situation wasn’t carefully addressed, the country would see itself in a depression.

Earlier this month, figures from Stats SA showed that the local economy had slid into recession, with the first two quarters of this year reflecting contracting growth.

“The numbers cannot lie, and if we are not careful and we don’t address the issues, we will get into what is called a depression,” said George, echoing his Cosatu counterpart.

George added that Fedusa would be lobbying for a stimulus package in a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa scheduled for later on Friday.